


Don't follow instructions written in strange books from mysterious bookstores that don't exist

by gwendee



Series: Don't draw devil's traps in janitors' closets [1]
Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angels and Demons, Crack Treated Seriously, Demon Summoning, Fluff and Humor, I'm Sorry, Light Angst, M/M, Magical Realism, Supernatural Elements, Urban Fantasy, What Have I Done
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-12-11
Packaged: 2020-09-07 17:09:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 27
Words: 52,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20313052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwendee/pseuds/gwendee
Summary: Seriously. Just don't.Karma Akabane, like all bored and curious little human children do once in their lives, tries to summon a demon.Or: Human Karma Akabane, demon Gakushuu Asano, and the happenings in an assassination classroom.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys, your girl Gwen is back with more content you didn't ask for. 
> 
> Featuring one human Karma Akabane, one half-demon Gakushuu Asano, and one year in class 3-E as they deal with octopus supercreature teachers and assassination. (It's mostly Karma that deals with it.) More crack, more fluff, more nonsense (?) coming to you every week or so with sporadic updates as school starts :')

**Don't follow instructions written in strange books from mysterious bookstores that don't exist. **

**(Seriously. Just don't.)**

Karma Akabane, like all bored and curious little human children do once in their lives, tries to summon a demon. Come on, everyone has a demon-summoning stage at least _ once _ in their life, right? Absolutely.

So this particular demon-summoning stage kicks off when Karma finds the strangest book in a bookstore he swears that he’d never seen before in his life, on his way back from school. Like all demon-summoning prone children, he looks at heavy bound leather books with black magic how-to and thinks, he has nothing to do tomorrow afternoon anyways, so why the hell not? At age 14 Karma is young, impressionable, and ready to haunt a random room in his school, so he brings a candle and some chalk and the book in eager preparation of one afternoon of entertainment.

Late in the day, when most people have left the school grounds and leaves prime opportunity for mischief, Karma picks a secluded janitor closet in a corner of Kunugigaoka Middle School and props the book open in his lap, squinting at the words in dim lighting. He’s just barely started the incantation on page 32 when the door is abruptly thrown open, and Karma shrieks a little.

“What are you doing?” Oh, it’s just Asano: Principal’s son, student council in the running, big pain in the ass. Trust him to be nosy and stay after school hours. Karma was sure he’d locked the door.

Karma gives him a winning grin. “Can’t you see I’m reading a book by romantic candlelight?”

“Give me that,” Asano says, scowling, and snatches the book out of Karma’s hands before he has time to protest. Asano skims the page, open to the whole demon-summoning ritual, and his expression turns strange. “This is an unusual time and place for a summoning, is it not?” He says, turning the book around in his hands.

Uh. “I suppose,” Karma says awkwardly. He’s a little weirded out that Asano’s not blowing his top off about Karma dabbling in the occult on school grounds like how he would expect him to, but honestly, if he’s not going to go tattling to the teachers, Karma will take whatever he can get. Hey, maybe Asano’s interested in supernatural stuff, too. "There's no specification on the timing," Karma says, "just calls for a dark room, a candle, and a demon trap."

Asano eyes the chalk drawing on the floor: a crudely scribbled devil’s trap. He doesn’t say anything about vandalism or go into a tirade about breaking school rules, which is super weird-

“Oh, huh,” Karma says, “the candle went out.” According to the dubious black book, the flame would go out in the presence of a demon. Or, Karma supposes, strong wind. 

Asano is watching him so intensely that Karma almost shudders, but he doesn’t say a word when Karma flicks the lighter and tries to re-light it. It doesn’t. Karma almost considers inviting Asano to join him - after all, demon-summoning is more fun in groups and that means he’s home free in the disciplinary action department, but Asano makes that decision for him. Very abruptly, he leaves and shuts the door.

Karma wonders if he went to get an adult to deal with this. Kind of strange, given that he could have just hauled Karma out by the back collar. Or maybe he was secretly scared and didn't want to deal with whatever consequences that arise from a demon summoning? How funny. 

Karma tries the candle again. It lights up, flame burning bright. Cool.

Karma watches the door for a moment longer, but Asano doesn't seem like he was coming back, and there were no thundering footsteps of an authority figure heading his way to break up the demon summoning, so Karma deems it safe to continue. He pulls the book over his lap again and restarts the incantation.

He finishes it, waits a beat, and two. No demons show up. 

"Aww," says Karma. He's not really too disappointed. He hadn't expected much, but this killed his boredom for an afternoon, so that was good enough. Maybe he could bug Asano about it later. He’s just about to pack everything up when the door opens again, and Asano strides in, looking irritated.

"Close the door," Karma says, "you let a draft in. It blew my candle out."

Asano gives him another, stranger look. The wind blows the door shut for them, and Asano frowns at the devil’s trap again. And then, for some inexplicable, unfathomable reason, he walks over the trap and sits down cross-legged in the middle of it. Um, what?

"What do you want?" Asano says.

What? "An explanation?" Karma says. This was too weird. Asano hasn't called him crazy yet, and he tends to find any excuse to accuse Karma of insanity. He was the one acting crazy in this scenario, Karma thinks. 

Asano glowers at him. "You summoned a demon."

"No, it didn't work," Karma says. 

Asano glowers at him, harder. 

Wait a minute. "The door opens inwards," Karma says, eyes narrowing. There was a thin wisp of smoke trailing out from the candle wick, like it was still burning, but there was no flame in sight. He looks at the book again, then back at Asano, who was tapping his fingers against his thigh.

"This is a joke," Karma says.

"Like I'd ever play such a stupid prank," Asano says. He rests his cheek on his hand and looks almost bored.

“Uh.” Karma’s not sure what to do now. This was… very unlike Asano. Very out of character. “You’re saying… you’re a… demon.”

“Is it not obvious?” Asano says impatiently. 

Karma blinks once, twice, and squints. “Okay,” he says slowly, because Asano was clearly off his rocker. “I’m just going to…” he jabs his thumb towards the door. He gets to his feet slowly, Asano still watching him with a lazy gaze, and backs up against the door. Did the Principal know his son had some loose screws in his head? Enjoyed roleplaying as a demon? His hand finds the doorknob and he twists it.

Shit. It’s locked. How is it locked? Shouldn’t these doors open from the inside?

“Give me the keys,” Karma says, rattling the doorknob. He frowns at Asano. “Locking us in? Really? Look, I’ll clean the chalk off, okay, you don’t have to be acting so weird-”

The door swings open the wrong way. It’s thrown outwards against its hinges, and instead of the school corridor Karma expects to see, there’s nothing - an endless expanse of black, darkness so overwhelming it’s like staring into the void, so empty and devoid of nothing that cold terror grips Karma by the heart-

-and the door abruptly slams close, and Karma stumbles back and almost trips over his own feet. “What the hell-”

He whips around to stare at Asano, who’s smiling. His teeth are sharp, sharper than Karma ever remembers them being.

“This isn’t funny,” Karma says.There’s blood pounding in his ears, and his voice wavers. What the heck was that? What kind of prank-?

"Sit the hell back down," Asano snaps at him.

Karma does. 

"I'm going to tell you something, so shut up," Asano says, and Karma swears the temperature in the room drops several degrees. "Your spell worked. You summoned me. It's pretty basic - you humans summon demons for one reason and one reason only; so tell me, what do you want?"

"Oh," Karma says faintly. "Uh. I don't. What do I do?" Is his heart still beating?

Annoyance flashes across his features. "You're the one who summoned me," Asano says. “Did you not think this out beforehand? What were you planning to do, play with a demon?” His eyes flash red - that was definitely not Karma's imagination.

"Sorry," Karma says, "I didn't think it would work." His gaze flickers briefly to the devil’s trap that Asano is still seated obediently in, and Karma starts praying in his head, and he starts to curse his unfortunate name and how absolutely stupid he was-

“Hey,” Asano says, interrupting his panic. “Idiot. I can hear you freaking out.”

Oh dear god, what?!

“I can’t read minds,” Asano says, which is definite proof that he can. He stares at Karma consideringly for a long moment, and then his expression softens. Karma doesn't really want to know what conclusion he'd come to. "Half," he finally says, eyes flicking briefly to a deep crimson.

“Huh?”

“I’m a half-demon,” Asano says. He cocks his head. “My other half is human.”

Karma chews on his bottom lip. Asano looks like he’s waiting for Karma to say something, so he says, “your dad?’

Asano raises an eyebrow, as if to say, smart.

"That makes so much sense," Karma blurts, before he can censor himself. Luckily, Asano seems just as amused, settling in comfortably over the pentagram.

Karma stares at his crudely scribbled demon trap. "Does that actually work?"

Asano snorts. "No."

"Is It because you're half a demon?" 

"It's because it's shittly drawn," Asano gives him a lazy smirk, "you should feel lucky I'm around. If you summoned any other demon, they'll step out of it and kill you first."

Karma winces. He doesn’t doubt that. "How come I summoned you?"

The answer was oddly simple. "I was nearest."

"You didn't seem very summoned."

"The technicalities are different from what you see in media. The reason for such... flippancy is because I answered your summon willingly." 

Karma looks at him warily. "Why?"

"Self preservation," Asano answers. "Neither of us would like the alternative."

"What's that?"

This time, Asano winces. "My father. He's the other demon in proximity."

Karma's eyes widen. Suddenly he’s really glad Asano- well, this Asano, is here. "He'd kill me."

"Probably," Asano agrees, "he's in a staff meeting right now."

A bit of an awkward silence falls between them. Karma shuts the book and puts it aside. 

"What do you want?" Asano asks again, less harsh this time, but nonetheless impatient.

"I don't," Karma makes a face, and looks down at his hands. "What are my options?"

"I could erase your memory and you forget this ever happened," Asano says. 

"No," Karma says hurriedly, and quietens at the look he gets. "Uh, no, sorry. Is there anything else?" 

The grin he gets is nothing short of predatory. "You could give me your soul," he says, "a contract. I become your indentured servant for a period of time until I fulfill a specific request of yours, and then I eat your soul."

Karma doesn’t quite know the value of his soul, but he’s pretty sure he wants to keep it. There’s nothing he wants too badly that he’d sell his soul for, anyways. "Is there… an option without the soul eating?" 

"You walk out of here and pretend this never happened." Asano’s voice makes it clear that that’s not even an option to be considered.

Karma takes a deep breath and asks anyways."...will that work?"

"No." 

"For you, or me?"

"Both. I'm bound to you until you release or demand something of me, and I could just keep you locked here until you do."

"Someone will know."

"Will they?"

Karma bites his lip. He glances at the door again and the darkness that seems to be seeping in under the cracks. "Do I have any other options?"

"Yes,” Asano says. “An indefinite contract, but I use the term loosely. You do not have to wager your soul, but I will be your aide until the contract ends."

That sounded too good to be true. It probably was. "...what's the catch? What's in it for you?" 

Asano seems to mull over that for a while, chin resting on his hand. "Entertainment, I assume, for the first demons who drew up this sort of a contract with a human. But the lack of a wager on your part means that I don't have to obey your orders."

"Doesn't that defeat the point?"

"I still could, if you made it worth my while," Asano grins at him. "A soul bound contract is absolute, and so every order you bequeath to me must be fulfilled to the best of my ability. This is… far more lax in it's terms, in a way to put it, where I am still bound to you and am thus compelled to see to your requests, but I can say no." 

Karma stares, skeptical. "What do you mean, worth your while?"

"There is no free labor in this world. If the payment is not a soul, it can be something else."

"Like what?"

"Anything, really," Asano looks over his nails with a little bit of boredom on his face. “It’s just an exchange of goods and services. A business transaction, if you will, between partners.”

“That’s…” Karma wracks his brain for the right words, but nothing comes. “That is…”

“An unorthodox contract, starkly different from what is portrayed in common media,” Asano sighs, “but it is one, as per tradition. I presume that is the one you are interested in? You do not need to offer up your soul, after all, and I shall not be bound to you by any means other than-”

“A friendship,” Karma chokes out, and Asano’s gaze snaps sharply towards him.

“That’s a _ friendship _,” Karma wheezes, “friends do things for each other and they get to say no. You just defined, a friendship-”

“I don’t care what you call it,” Asano bristles, clearly caring, “do you want it or not?”

Oh, what the heck, right? He’s already in this deep. His two other options were… having his memory erased, or selling his soul. “Yes,” Karma nods, “yes, I do.”

“I, Akabane Karma, of my own consent, enter a soul-less bound contract with the demon known as Asano Gakushuu,” Asano says. His eyes flash red. “Say it.”

Karma does.

“Okay,” Asano relaxes, and nods. “It’s done.”

There’s a pause between them. Karma doesn’t really… feel any different. “That’s it?” Karma asks.

“Yes, that’s it. What did you want, a blood sacrifice?” Asano huffs. “That’s only for a soul-bound contract. Did you want one?”

“No thanks,” Karma says softly.

“Well, then,” Asano says, and gets to his feet. The demon trap really was useless. Asano is unlocking the closet door when Karma realizes he has his book in his hands. 

“Hey, give that back!”

“Do you want to give me your soul?” Asano says.

Karma glares at him.

“No? Then I don’t have to listen to a thing you say,” Asano waves the book in front of his face. The door shuts behind him. When Karma looks back down, the demon trap is gone, the floor scrubbed clean, and the candle is alight. Karma shivers. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello guys! How has everyone been? Thanks for reading the first chapter, in case anyone is wondering it's set sometime late in their 2nd year of middle school.

**Be sure to check the currency conversion rates before undergoing ** **transactions with international dealers.**

Karma’s not sure what to do. He goes home, searches up everything and anything he can about the topic, and practices drawing devil’s traps. He draws one on his door and under his bed, just in case. 

He’s going crazy. That did not just happen. Asano is not a demon. Asano is not a demon.

“Asano is not a demon,” Karma says out loud. It doesn’t sound as reassuring as it would be. 

There has to be an explanation for all of this. The candle going out, was forgivable, candles went out all the time. The closet door? It literally went against its own hinges. It defied the laws of physics. And what the hell had it opened to? A black hole? The candle relighting?

“Oh my god,” Karma says. 

His two options, he decides, were to either never speak to Asano again and leave this mystery buried behind him forever, or to take it in stride and accept that he’s now in a…. Indefinite contract with a demon. Both options were awful. Maybe he should have just taken the memory erasing option.

“No,” Karma says. He shakes his head. 

The next day at school, Asano ignores him as per usual practice. Karma’s wondering if everything was a hallucination, sitting alone on the roof and eating his lunch, when Asano materializes next to him. 

Karma shrieks. He almost goes over the edge of the school building, too, except Asano hauls him back with a surprising effortless and dumps his ass on the ground. He looks amused.

“H-hi, Asano,” Karma greets shakily. 

“Hi, Akabane,” Asano drawls, voice smooth and silky. Karma scrambles to his feet, feeling vulnerable. Where did Asano come from? Did he just… appear from thin air? Was that a demon thing?

“I’m not Christian,” Asano says.

What? Oh. Karma’s wearing a chain with a cross on it. He flushes. “Sorry,” Karma says, “I didn’t… mean…” He twists the chain. “Uh, if you don’t mind me asking, then what…”

Asano settles on his perch on the rooftop banister. “Demons aren’t connected to any religion,” he says. “We are most commonly portrayed in media in relation to Christianity because of the popularity of the Bible but it would be strange to think we were connected to one religion and not others, no?” He cocks his head, seemingly lost in thought. “I am unable to think of a suitable way to explain this to you. Simply imagine us as a species independent to humans.”

“Do angels exist?” Karma asks.

“Yes,” Asano says, “what you would call angels do exist. We are of the same… species, just on different sides of war.”

“War?”

“Politics are messy,” Asano grimaces, “I myself do not have a full grasp of them. That is why my father and I remain on this plane of existence.”

“The other plane of existence is the… afterlife? Like heaven and hell?”

Asano thinks for a moment. “Sure,” he says, “that is a suitable description.”

“Huh,” Karma says. Asano is relaxed, seated back and watching Karma with a curious expression. Karma rubs his arms. "So how does… all these work? Is it magic?"

"Yes," Asano says. "There is a- well, our worlds run on different laws. The mechanics of physics and space-time in our worlds differ, and when they interact, unexplained phenomena happens. So, magic." 

Karma pauses for a moment. Asano seems like he’s in a… good mood? Well, not a bad mood at the least. “Can you do something demon-y?”

Asano’s eyes flash a dangerous red. “Like what?” He asks, baring his teeth.

Uh. Okay, maybe not. “Nevermind,” Karma says.

“You still doubt that I’m a demon?” Asano tilts his head. “Ask me for something.”

“What?”

“Request something of me. As per the contract.”

“I…” Karma looks down. There’s nothing he particularly wants. He should ask for something small, so there’s no risk of wagering his soul? Even if Asano said this was a no-soul, ad-hoc request basis. “Can I… get some strawberry milk?”

Asano laughs a little. “Seriously?” But he holds out his hand, and Karma watches as a carton of his favorite strawberry milk pops out of nowhere and onto Asano’s empty palm. Asano lobs it over. 

It’s a standard, normal sealed carton of strawberry milk. Nothing wrong, nothing tampered. Very slowly, Karma pokes the straw in and takes a sip. The same, normal milk, completely unchanged in any way. Appeared out of thin air, magicked by a demon. “Holy shit,” he breathes. 

Asano looks a little smug at that. 

“Uh,” Karma says, “so what’s… payment?”

“Anything you deem fit, I suppose,” Asano says. He adjusts his position on the banister. “I’d accept a soul.”

Karma makes a face. “What about a drink?”

“Hm,” Asano says. It’s not a no. “Lunch is over. Go back to class.”

Karma opens his mouth to reply, but Asano blinks out of his sight anyways. He’s starting to think he’s doing it just to freak him out. Karma’s not sure what Asano likes, but he’d seen him drink fruit juice from the vending machine once before, so he gets that on the way back to class.

“Hey,” Karma says, pushing the bottle into Asano's hands as they pass each other in the hallway. He feels a little silly. Their schoolmates slowly turn to look at them in sync. Karma thinks its justified. He and Asano were vicious rivals and now Karma is buying him a drink without poisoning it. He thinks he’s spiralling into insanity.

“Thanks,” Asano murmurs, eyes glittering with mischief. 

There’s no explanation for it, but luckily nobody asks. Or perhaps they do, and Asano charms them away with honeyed words.

About a week and three exchanges in Asano says, “you don’t have to keep buying me drinks.”

Karma should really be used to it by now, but hearing someone else’s voice in an empty rooftop still spooks him. His bento goes flying, and appears a split second later on his lap, ingredients haphazardly arranged like they’ve been caught out of the air. Karma pouts at it. 

“I don’t know what the appropriate exchange rate is,” Karma says.

“A drink to drink ‘exchange rate’ defeats the point, don’t you think?” Asano says. He’s dangling by the railings now. Does no one ever look up in this school?

“True,” Karma admits, but he doesn’t know what else is suitable. He picks at his lunch. “Do demons eat?”

“Demons don’t eat,” Asano says, in a sour way.

“But you do,” Karma guesses. Asano scowls at nothing in particular. 

“Yes,” he says, sounding annoyed. “What an unnecessary, human need.”

“Why? Do demons photosynthesize?” Karma asks, then throws his hands up in surrender when Asano glares at him. They must need fuel somehow, right?

“...I don’t know,” Asano admits. “My father doesn’t eat.”

“How many other demons do you know?” Karma’s curious. There must be more demons hiding in plain sight on his plane of existence, wanting to keep their hands clean from whatever war was going on in theirs. 

Asano doesn’t reply. Karma wonders if he’d said the wrong thing.

“Here,” Karma says. He thrusts his bento forward, and Asano eyes it with suspicion. 

“Are you offering me half-eaten food?”

“Listen,” Karma says, “I’m a great cook, okay? Don’t diss the product before you try it.”

Asano, thankfully, gets off the railing and walks over like a normal person, instead of teleporting next to Karma and scaring the shit out of him. He does conjure up his own magical pair of chopsticks and gingerly take a piece of tamagoyaki off Karma’s messed up bento, and puts it into his mouth.

Then his eyes widen, and he quickly takes another.

Karma laughs. “I take it that you like it.”

The bento somehow makes it into Asano’s hands. Asano stares down at it, then sheepishly hands it back. “It was,” he clears his throat, “acceptable.” He turns a little pink.

“How about this,” Karma says, “as payment. I’ll make you lunch.”

Asano’s eyes flash red. It’s not as terrifying as the first few times - it’s sort of cute, now, with context: in which case, excitement about Karma's cooking. “Yes,” he says quickly. Then, “you can request other things." Which Karma takes to mean that his bento is worth more than strawberry milk. He’s flattered.

“Okay,” Karma agrees. The next day, Asano is already at the rooftop waiting. Karma watches him dig in eagerly into the bento.

"I have a question," Karma says. Asano doesn't pause in eating, so Karma continues. "Isn't it suspicious you spend so much time up here? Aren't people used to seeing you around in the cafeteria or something?"

Asano swallows his food. "I've never eaten in the cafeteria," he says. "I spend lunch times in the Principal's office." 

Speaking of. "Does he know about us?"

"He'd never said anything," Asano says, "but I would assume so."

"Does anyone else know you're a demon?"

This time, Asano pauses in eating to give Karma the world's most unimpressed expression. 

"Right," Karma nods. Then, "how old are you?"

Another deadpan stare. "I'm your age, idiot." 

"Like in human years, or demon years?" Karma asks. "Are you guys immortal?"

"Nothing is immortal," Asano answers. “We have a different lifespan. I’ve been alive almost as long as you have.”

“How long would you live?” 

“A full demon would live several centuries,” Asano tells him.

“How about you?” Karma asks.

“I don’t know.”

“How is a half-demon different from regular demons? Do you have more limitations over your powers or anything like that?”

Asano looks mildly irritated now. “I don’t know,” he repeats.

“You don’t know anything about half-demons?” Karma says, and Asano shoots him a sharp glare. “Are you the only one around?”

“Yes,” Asano says softly.

Karma wants to ask why. He doesn’t. Asano finishes off his food, and with a snap of his fingers the box appears next to Karma, washed and spotless. It smells slightly of lemon dish soap. Karma stuffs the bento back into his bag, and when he looks up again, Asano is gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just realized something. I can't believe I've never thought about it before. In middle school before his suspension and subsequent drop to 3-E, Karma was in Class D. 
> 
> What brought about this realization? Well I've always assumed that Karma was in A before his suspension because he was smart, and that's something I've never bothered to fact-check (so forgive me if I mention something like that anytime through my fics). Today my thoughts went along the lines of "I can't believe this chaotic couple were in the same class in middle school for 2 years and nothing happened" before I thought, "wait, were they even in the same class???" Turns out, they're not. Wow. I'm feeling so betrayed by my own assumptions. I don't write pre-3-E fics so I've never dwelled on it but... now? I have? 
> 
> In hindsight I should have figured it out sooner. Nagisa and Karma were classmates (as it has been so mentioned) pre-canon and Nagisa had been in class D, not A. Also I feel like Asano wouldn't take it lying down if Karma dropped from A to E over one incident. Even if he didn't like Karma he'd wage war just on principle.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg you guys I'm crying, sun-cat has blessed us today AHHHHH she drew Fucking Amazing fanart  

> 
> [Tumblr](https://suntails.tumblr.com/post/187269648150/)
> 
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/suntails/status/1165728816226066439/)
> 
> [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/B1mc3_tAotu/)
> 
> Cat... suntails... I don't know what to say I love you... I'm sorry I'm just so happy

**Don't show fear because your worst enemy and his father can feel it. **

Passing by the Principal in the hallways, Karma feels a chill run down his spine. He winces out a smile and the Principal looks at him with a glint in his eyes, with a smile far too sharp and too threatening. This is it, Karma thinks, he's dead, he's done for, no one would ever find his body-

“Hi, Principal,” the younger Asano says, snapping Karma out of his thoughts. Karma steps behind Asano instinctively, an action not gone unnoticed. The Principal’s smile widens.

“Asano,” the Principal says pleasantly. Father and son address each other professionally in social settings. What about away from the public eye? Demon and demon junior?

Asano is staring at him with his eyes crinkled in amusement, and that’s when Karma realizes the Principal is no longer looming over both of them. He’s down the hallway, walking at a human pace, humming to himself.

“You look like you’ve seen the devil,” Asano teases, then goes off in his merry way. 

“Wait,” Karma hisses, and rushes after him. He’s still shivering a little.

“He’s not going to do anything,” Asano says, waving a hand. The both of them walking side by side down the corridors still gets weird looks from their schoolmates, but people have grown more used to it. Karma still gets questioning glances from the newly dubbed Virtuosos, a very strange group of… friends? Are they friends? 5 people including Asano who consider themselves the academic elite. Karma isn’t invited because of his delinquent reputation and frankly, he doesn’t want to be. 

Karma catches the carton of strawberry milk that comes flying towards him. He pokes the straw through. “He’s not going to kill me in my sleep?”

Asano smiles at him. That is in no way reassuring. 

“By the way,” he says, “there’s something weird, right here,” Karma presses a hand to his stomach. Asano’s gaze flickers towards it, but they keep walking. Karma continues, “it’s this strange tingly feeling I get with you around - okay, don’t give me that look, I know what I said. I can almost ignore it, but it… tingles more when you’re not around. Except with your dad just now, it started hurting a little.” Karma winces. 

Asano looks interested now. “Does it,” he says. 

“Yeah, it- hey!” Asano grabs Karma by the arm and starts leading him away from the classrooms. Karma doesn’t have time to protest before he’s shoved in an empty storage room, and Asano bodily picks him up and sits him on a table. He pokes and prods at him, and Karma stays obediently still. 

Then Asano places the palm of his hand on the flat of Karma’s stomach, and Karma freezes up.

“That’s our bond,” Asano murmurs. His voice has a strange, inhuman tenor to it. “The contract,” he clarifies, eyes glowing a little. “It’s not supposed to be a two-way connection.”

“So what, you’re supposed to feel this, and I’m not?” Karma asks.

“Yes.” it’s warm where Asano’s hand is. “It might be because I’m a half-demon, but I am unable to confirm this hypothesis.”

Karma doesn’t ask about that. Instead he says, “what does your end of the connection feel like?”

“I can feel that you’re alive.”

“That’s… reassuring,” Karma says. “I just feel like I drank too much soda.”

Asano laughs a little. “You’ll get used to it,” he says. “Let me know about its progress.” 

It takes another two weeks, but Karma gradually notices little patterns about the… tingling. When Asano’s shoveling food into his mouth, the feeling is almost… happy, Karma thinks, which is a weird but apt description, like little bubbles popping in excitement. It’s not a bad feeling, and it makes Karma somewhat compelled to keep cooking better dishes. When Asano is bored, the tingle flattens into a rather monotonous droning that is rather fitting. It happens a lot during class, that feeling, and Karma laughs quietly to himself as he pictures Asano pretending to pay attention. It’s the most common feeling Karma has registered so far, which makes sense. 

Asano pauses in his meal and makes a face. “Stop thinking so hard.”

Karma blanches. “Can you hear my thoughts?

“No,” Asano says. “But whatever is on your mind is making you feel emotions, and that I can feel.”

"Normal people feel emotions," Karma says. "You feel plenty of emotions, too."

Asano's lips curl, like being a human being was an inconvenience. "Unfortunately," he says.

“Right,” Karma says. He thinks he’s plenty attuned into Asano’s general emotional state. Was this what Asano meant when he could feel that Karma was alive? 

“What’s the rationale behind the bond, anyways?” Karma asks. “What’s the point of us being able to, ah, feel each other?”

Asano looks annoyed at the interruption to his food. “Our version of the bond isn’t supposed to exist,” he reminds Karma. “There’s no sense it in either, in my opinion. What a bother.”

“What do you feel?”

“You will not understand even if I attempt to explain it to you,” Asano frowns at him. “Annoying. You feel annoying.”

Karma snorts. “Well, I share your sentiment.” Annoying, distracting.

“Glad we understand each other,” Asano flashes a grin at him. It’s full of sharp teeth, but Karma’s used to it by now. Asano no longer uses it as an intimidation tactic but Karma thinks he sort of has fun with it, showing little flashes of his demonic nature. Asano quickly finishes off the bento for the day, with a snap of his fingers it’s clean and packed up neatly by Karma’s side. Asano, dramatic as he is, goes over the side of the school building. 

“So,” Karma starts one day, when he’s pretending to not study and Asano’s deep in the throes of their math assignment, and they’re both alone in the classroom after school. This is a new development, Karma staying back after school to do work with Asano. They don’t spend a lot of time together outside of lunch, really, and it’s normally just a part of an hour after classes before Asano leaves for his extracurriculars. He gets weird looks from their schoolmates hanging out in an empty classroom with his sworn enemy but Karma doesn’t care about what they think.

“Hm?” Asano says, distracted. 

“What can you do? You know, aside from washing lunchboxes and teleporting.”

Asano blinks. “We don’t teleport,” he says, “we just move really quickly. We can choose to disappear from human sight which helps with the illusion of teleportation.”

“Oh,” Karma says, “that’s cool. Can you turn invisible now?”

Asano’s demeanor doesn’t change outwardly, but Karma feels a little nauseous. “I’m not a circus animal,” Asano says, voice cool. 

“Sorry, I was curious,” Karma winces. The nausea subsides, replaced with a calm lull, so Karma thinks it’s safe to ask more. “How do you always do the thing with the lunchbox? Is it a magic spell?”

“Dimensional manipulation,” Asano tells him, scribbling onto his worksheet. “We cannot create things from nothing the same way we cannot destroy. Conservation of matter, fi you will. Whatever seems like magic to you is, well, a lot of it is simply moving things to and fro the dimensions.” Asano’s gaze flicks up to look at Karma, his eyes glowing faintly. “Think of the other dimension as a different layer that overlaps this one. Human beings simply do not have the ability to sense and manipulate the other layer, but I can move things in and out of it, including myself.”

Karma thinks for a moment. “Yeah, okay, I get that. That still doesn’t explain how you clean the lunchbox. Is there an inter-dimensional dishwasher, or?”

Asano furrows his brow. “It's magic.”

“Magic," Karma repeats. "So you don't know how, either?"

Asano looks annoyed, and he doesn't answer. He makes several more markings on his worksheet and then starts packing up. “See you.”

Karma watches him leave. It’s strange, because he can still feel Asano… connected, to him. “Bye,” he says, to thin air, and feeling in his stomach, rather oddly, seems a little amused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY so this chapter was a little bit calm. Just some more backstory, more pushing things into place for context, blah blah, demon Asano senior is terrifying, you get it, the works. I'm vibrating with new fic ideas (commitment who? never heard of her)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A chapter! It is here!

**Don't break school rules but the law is sometimes okay.**

When Karma gets suspended, he’s furious. He’d seen some of his schoolmates harassing a 3-E senior and had beat them up, but the twisted values and elitism of this school meant that 3-E students shouldn’t be defended and Karma was in the wrong. He hadn’t dared speak out in the principal’s office, but now he’s pissed. He kicks chairs over and yells bloody murder, and on the first day of his suspension he’s brooding a little in his room and deliberating over which snack to start on first, when there’s a tapping on his window.

Karma shrieks. Asano, perched on the third floor windowsill, slides the metal grate open with an enviable effortless and slips in. Karma was sure he’d locked his window.

“What are you doing here,” Karma narrows his eyes.

“You should not have done that,” Asano says. 

“Why?” Karma demands. “Because you think the E Class is worthless filth, too? You assholes are all the same, you-”

Asano’s eyes flash red, and Karma immediately shuts his mouth. 

“You should remember who you’re speaking to,” Asano drawls, his words vibrating with an inhuman tenor, and Karma slowly nods. Asano blinks once again, and his voice is normal again when he speaks, “I don’t care much for social hierarchy of human relationships but I understand your reasoning.”

“Do you think I’m justified?” Karma asks. 

“I am unable to get you out of your suspension,” Asano says, gaze curiously flicking over Karma’s bedroom. Karma’s question goes unanswered. He feels oddly exposed. 

“Because you won’t do it, because we don’t have a soul-bound contract,” Karma says.

“Because that would require going against my father,” Asano corrects. He sets a small black box on karma’s desk.

“Filial piety,” Karma says. He understands the concept, and perhaps he might have some should his parents had been less neglectful of his childhood. But Karma had grown out of his yearning for their affection, a purely human need, he would presume; he didn’t think demons had the same inclinations. Then again, Asano was only part demon.

“Hardly,” Asano snorts. “Well the human side of me seeks love and attention from a parent as all of us do, it’s not truly necessary, as you should know.” Asano’s gaze is piercing. Karma feels even more vulnerable, and folds his hands over his lap.

“Surely you two care for each other, even just a little bit,” Karma says. 

“Demons don’t care for love,” Asano says, almost wistfully, “it’s simply an emotion that they cannot feel.” 

Karma wonders what Asano means, what relationship he has with his demon father. It’s said, plain as day: Asano loves him, and his patriarch does not, can not. What a startlingly human curse. Karma doesn’t ask about his mother.

“If this was a soul-bound contract, and you had to get me out of my suspension,” Karma asks, “what would you have to do?”

Asano seems to consider this for a moment, perched on a corner of his desk. It should not be able to hold his weight and come toppling over, and yet Asano sits atop. “If he was human, I would simply alter the memories of everyone involved,” Asano says. “But he is not, so I would have to fight him for the chance.” 

His lip curls up distastefully. “I would not win, so I advise you from not requesting that of me.” Asano seems bitter at the admission.

“Because you’re only a half-demon?” Karma asks.

“Because I’m a child,” Asano says, petulantly. He frowns at his watch. “I have to go.” He’s out the window before Karma can say anything, and disappears. Karma frowns at the clear skies and empty roads, then shuts his window again and rattles the box.

They’re chocolates. It’s kind of nice.

Asano visits every once in a while. He doesn’t bring any more gifts. Karma’s not sure how he can tell but he knows Asano is troubled, even when he remains cool on the outside. It’s the bond, he thinks, tingling in his stomach strange and restless.

Asano tells him that the devil's traps he had drawn work. "They still don't affect me," he says, "because they were drawn by you and I am already in a contract with you." His eyes glow a little in amusement. "You won't have any house visits by your school principal any time soon."

"I don't think I want house visits," Karma says. 

Asano laughs, and disappears without a goodbye. Karma's getting used to it.

It is mid-afternoon a week before his suspension is due to be over, when Asano appears in his bedroom. Karma, now accustomed to the arrivals, doesn’t scream. He does throw a pillow in reflex.

Asano, ever benevolent, lets it hit him in the face, and throws it back. The fluff hits Karma solidly in the gut and knocks the wind out of him.

“You’re due a visitor,” Asano tells him, eyes glittering. He is… excited.

“Who?” Karma asks cautiously.

“Someone important,” Asano says. “The information he will impart to you is private and confidential. I want to listen to it.”

“I can tell you afterwards,” Karma says skeptically.

“No,” Asano shakes his head, “I’ve been waiting on this for too long. I’ll be with you. He won’t see me.” The doorbell rings, and Karma frowns and heads downstairs. 

To Karma, Asano is a corporeal form, hovering over his shoulder. Karma’s visitor slides his gaze over where Asano should be standing and sees nothing out of the ordinary. Agent Tadaomi Karasuma spouts what could be complete utter bullshit that Karma wouldn’t buy a single bit, except that he can practically feel Asano’s eagerness vibrate in his stomach. It’s suffocating to him and Karasuma pays no mind to it, just calmly going through the terms of the contract.

Karma, on the other hand, feels like he’s choking. It’s not his own feelings, it’s the damn demon. The distress must show on his face.

“I know it seems… horrifying,” Agent says, softening a fraction, “I’ll let you think it over.”

When Karasuma leaves, Karma immediately screams. “Damn pest!” He yells, and Asano materializes on the other end of the table, already flipping through the non disclosure contract with poorly concealed interest.

“You were killing me!” Karma yells. He clutches his abdomen. It's a mess of emotions from the demon, and he wants to throw up.

“I would never. That’s against our contract,” Asano says, distractedly. “I knew he was hiding something from me, but I would have never guessed  _ this _ .”

“Who?”

“The principal,” Asano says. He flips through the documents again, reading at an inhuman speed. “This is interesting.”

“Why wouldn’t he tell you?”

“Because he likes to see me run around in circles.” Asano’s lips curl. “He had a spell put over your classroom, I was unable to spy on them.”

"My classmates," Karma thinks, "can you tell me who they are?"

"Yes," Asano says. He rattles off in rapid succession names of people Karma doesn't remember, and then-

"Nagisa Shiota?" 

Asano looks at him curiously.

"We were friends," Karma tells him.

"Huh," Asano's eyes narrow in amusement. "Interesting."

Karma eyes him warily. "Whatever you're planning to do, I suggest you don't hurt anyone."

Asano's pupils contract. "Is that a request?"

Karma scowls at him. "No, it's me saying you should act like a decent human- ah, nevermind."

Asano rolls his eyes. An innocently human trait. "I am unable to do anything even if I wish," he points out, and Karma almost thinks he's sulking.

"Because of the spell?"

"No, because I have school." Asano huffs. "Speaking of, lunch period is almost over." He blinks out of sight, leaving Karma standing alone in his living room.

"Huh," he says. Asano could probably get him no more information than what they both already know. He settles in with the dossier and the rubber knife Agent Karasuma had given him, and starts to read.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, let me know what you think!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi hi hi!

**Do you want to allow files from this website to run on your computer?**

Asano is very excited the day Karma's suspension ends. Karma knows this, because he woke up to a demon sitting on the edge of his bed at 6am in the morning and screamed. 

Karma was hoping to get in a few more hours of sleep. He didn't care if he was late on his first day. Unfortunately for him, Asano cared very much, or at the very least he cared about finding out about class 3-E's secret. 

"Can you at least wait for me to cook?" Karma whines, digging his heels into the carpet. Asano considers it for a moment, pausing in his efforts to push Karma out the door. He's clearly in a playful mood right now and just being dramatic - if he really wanted Karma out of the house that instant, Karma would have no option to negotiate.

"Fine," Asano says. He disappears, but Karma sees him perched on the kitchen table when he steps into the kitchen. Karma makes a quick breakfast to appease Asano, two bento boxes for their lunch, and then another set of two breakfasts - one for him and one for the ravenous demon who's looking like he wants a soul for a snack.

Karma starts slicing up the little rubber knife into slits. Asano watches him in interest and thinly veiled impatience, and keeps snarking on Karma's time management skills on the way to school.

"I made you three breakfasts," Karma says, "three."

"I'm going to miss class," Asano complains.

"Class hasn't even started on main campus and you can move at the speed of light," Karma groans. "I'll say hi to the new teacher and assassinate him and then you can go."

"Hurry up about it," Asano snaps. They make their way to the 3-E classroom and hide behind a boulder, watching their classmates train in combat. Karma's a little impressed. In the center of all that commotion is a giant yellow octopus creature, tentacles waving and laughing obnoxiously at the students trying to murder him.

"What are you doing?" Asano says, annoyed, when Karma doesn't make a move.

"I'm waiting for the perfect moment. I need to make a dramatic entrance-"

"I will throw you out there on your face."

"I'm going, I'm going! Wait, but can you make dramatic wind blow-"

Asano kicks him out of their hiding spot. Karma straightens up and tries to look like his ungraceful entrance was definitely planned, but luckily nobody had noticed him. Asano, dear awesome Asano, is his rather ironic lord and saviour because a very cinematic breeze that wasn't there before starts blowing, and he grins and calls attention to himself. Struts in and shakes Koro-sensei's hand, watches in satisfaction as it explodes into disgusting little pieces, and quickly stabs him.

Koro-sensei disappears much like Asano would, and materializes a few feet away. Oh, fast.

"You moved so far away, sensei, are you scared?"

His new classmates stare in awe and apprehension. The wind stops blowing and Karma spies Asano appear on top of the school building, watching them coolly. He quickly vanishes, and Karma feels an amused bubbling in his stomach. 

Karma messes with Koro-sensei the whole day. He finds out during lunch that one of his bento boxes has disappeared, and Asano was nowhere to be found. He eats lunch with Nagisa and Nakamura and a girl called Kayano he doesn’t have any recollection of seeing around, but he never paid much attention to anybody anyways. 

Asano only reappears later that night to nick a piece of meat off Karma’s plate. Karma swats at him half-heartedly. 

“Word of advice,” Asano says, eyes glowing a little. “You shouldn’t be too complacent.”

Karma blinks. “Sorry?”

“You seemed like you had fun,” Asano says, cocking his head. “Remember not to lose your head.” Cryptic message imparted, Asano picks up another piece of meat and disappears, leaving Karma blinking at his dinner. 

Karma finally understands what he means, that asshole. He spends the next day getting teased by his classmates and made a fool of by Koro-sensei, who takes advantage of his speed to prank Karma back. When class lets out at the end of the day he's finally given a break from the laughter, but Karma's pissed. He drags Nagisa out of class with him and gripes about nothing in particular while he wracks his brain for ways to enact his revenge. Rather irritatingly, Koro-sensei follows, laughing that same obnoxious laugh of his.

“Son of a bitch,” he hisses under his breath, when he sees Asano perched on a tree snickering at him. He subtly flips the tree the bird, which isn’t discreet enough because he spies Nagisa giving him an odd look. Whatever.

"I don't get why they built this classroom on top of a tall hill like this," Nagisa says absently, "that's just waiting for an accident to happen. I know the school doesn't care about our grades, but we're still students."

Hmm. Great idea, Nagisa. Koro-sensei had preached about his principles and not letting his students come to harm. Karma checks his gun under his blazer and exchanges a look with Asano - lets see how much Koro-sensei was willing to back up his claim.

“Hey, Sensei,” Karma says, “how much of a teacher are you, really?”

Koro-sensei has thus proved to be an interesting character. He'd asked Asano the day prior if he was faster than Koro-sensei and Asano had declined to reply once again; his demon was temperamental, and salty. It's a little funny, but Karma wishes to keep his tongue, so that is not an observation he voices. 

"You knew he was going to catch me," Karma says, crossing his arms. It's after school and Koro-sensei was long gone, sped off into the west, and Karma had waved Nagisa away. They're on the roof of the 3-E classroom.

Their contract meant that Asano would not let Karma come to harm, which includes cracking his head open jumping from a cliff. Asano had stayed on a tree, watching Karma plummet, until Koro-sensei had dived after him and proved his dedication to being a teacher that Karma could trust.

Asano's eyes glitter, and he says nothing.

"What if he didn't?" Karma asks.

"I would have caught you before you hit the ground," Asano says plainly. 

"Would you have," Karma says. 

"Yes," Asano says. He cocks his head. "You still don't trust me." 

"I never said I don't."

"I feel it."

Karma swears inwardly. Their contract bond was a bother. 

"You say you can fly but I've never seen it," Karma says. 

Asano frowns at him. "Is that all?"

No. He'd never seen Asano fly, despite his claims. He hadn't been afraid because Asano was there and Karma had known he'd make sure Karma wouldn't hit the ground. He'd felt it in their... bond, the sureness of it, and he had leapt.

But apart from that, now, Karma realizes, he doesn't trust Asano. He'd never trusted Asano.

The boy was an actual demon, for god's sake. They never even got along when he'd thought Asano had been human.

Asano cocks his head at him. He adjusts his position and leans over the side of the building. 

"Do you trust me?" Asano asks.

"No," Karma says.

Asano grins at him, and pulls him over the edge of the roof. 

It's a floor and a half to the ground, a short fall compared to jumping off a cliff, but Karma's shocked anyways, for the brief moment he's free falling. He comes to a stop just hovering off the ground, blood pounding in his ears, and he realizes the scream came from him. Then he’s dropped onto the ground, falling the last few inches flat on his face, and he managed to brace himself so he doesn’t quite break his nose, but he did slam his forehead against the grass.

"Hey," Asano's voice curls behind his ear. Karma twists around to look at him, and his breath catches. 

Protruding from Asano's back were two large wings, black and deep and feathery, wingspan impossibly large. He comes to settle on top of Karma with his hands braced against either side of Karma's waist.

The wings beat twice more, and then fold neatly against either side of them, trapping Karma in a shroud of black feathers. Karma's mouth parts in awe, and he finds himself reaching out to touch before he realizes what he's doing. His fingers push into the mass of feathers, surprisingly silky and plush, and Karma gently drags his hand down. He knows all about birds and how each feather is connected to a nerve ending; he tries not to tug, smoothing out the vanes and stroking the wing. 

And abruptly remembers the demon it's connected to, and swiftly retracts his hand. Asano, on his part, was looking at Karma with pupils blown wide, lazily blinking, when Karma pulls away and he snaps out of his reverie, looking pissed.

Karma blinks once, and the wings are gone. Instead, Asano is glaring at him.

"Sorry," Karma says quickly. He apologizes more often now that his companion is a quick-to-anger supernatural force. 

"Never do that again," Asano hisses at him, teeth bared. 

"Okay," Karma says. Asano slides off him. 

There’s an awkward silence. Karma coughs. "What do you think?"

"About your teacher?" Asano's pupils flatten to slits. Karma notices they do that when he's deep in thought. He'd wondered what it meant, but now he thinks it means that Asano lets his guard down around him. "He's not a demon. I don't know what he is." 

"Maybe he's another... species?" 

"No," Asano says. His pupils dilate slowly. "He's a human." 

"Okay," Karma says. "But he's not."

"No," Asano agrees. He stretches. Karma imagines his wings doing the same. 

"How do you keep your wings hidden?"

"Magic."

"Uh huh," Karma says. He brushes the space where they should be, the empty air over Asano's back. Asano stares at him, amused.

"You must have so many different muscle groups," Karma marvels. "How many extra appendages do you have? Do you have a tail? What about horns?"

"No," Asano says. He shakes his head. "I have a student council meeting."

Karma rolls his eyes. "Spare 3-E, please. We have a lot going on right now."

"Not a chance," Asano grins at him. It's all sharp teeth. Karma sticks his tongue out at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> omg you guys i'm sorry, this chapter seems a little lacklustre to me and I think you can feel it too...? I wanted to get some plot moving forward but I wasn't quite... feeling this chapter, if you know what I mean. 
> 
> Anyways you can catch me on [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/gwendeeagain), blog's kinda boring but hmu with anything


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again!

**Some weird, demon contracted friendship.**

"Are you allowed to make other contracts while you're bound to me?" Karma asks.

Asano hums in his food. "Technically, I can. But as for if I'm allowed to," his eyes flick up and bores straight into Karma's, glowing. "Am I?"

"Uh," Karma looks around suspiciously. "Why are you asking me?"

"If you were to choose to sell me your soul," Asano says, licking his lips, "I would be your indentured servant. You do know what that means, do you?"

"I do," Karma says warily, "but I didn't sell you my soul."

Asano's pupils narrow into slits. "The principle is the same," he says. 

"This isn't some master-slave scenario, is it," Karma winces. 

Asano blinks his red slit-eyes slowly. He doesn't reply.

"This is a… friendship," Karma says. "Some weird, demon contracted friendship."

Asano doesn’t reply. Karma feels a little lonely when he leaves, he wonders if it translates through their bond. He’s been seeing a lot less of Asano now that class started, his time occupied by assassination, but Asano comes by in the morning to goad breakfast and lunch from him. There’s otherwise no more interaction, unlike in second year where Karma saw Asano on pretty much a daily basis, or during his suspension when Asano still came by for lunch.

He just wonders what Asano does with his time. Not that Karma doesn’t think he lazes around all day without him, but Karma couldn’t picture him do human things like watch television or sleep even when he thought Asano was a human, and he especially couldn’t, now.

“Do you need sleep?” Karma asks, the next time he sees Asano.

Asano blinks at him. “Yes,” he says.

“Do demons need sleep?” Karma asks, again.

Asano seems irritated. “No.”

“So your dad stays awake all night?”

“Yes,” Asano says. There’s a bit of time before he has to leave, so he sits and stretches on Karma’s dining table. Did Asano had something against chairs? 

“That must be… efficient,” Karma says. “Does he watch you sleep?”

“No, that’s weird,” Asano makes a face. “He does work. Goes back to the other dimension.”

“What’s that like?”

Asano doesn’t reply. He stretches again, yawns a little and shows off his fangs, and then disappears.

They have a new visitor today, a ditzy blonde woman who has large breasts and giggles too much. The class is exasperated at Koro-sensei’s inability to function around sexy women, and Karasuma-sensei’s oddly silent. There’s something about the lady, though, that Karma can’t quite put his finger on. He wishes he could ask Asano about it.

Koro-sensei, eager to please, flies to the other side of the world to procure a present for his new lady friend. And Miss Irina Jelavic shows her true colours: high class assassin, annoying, bitchy.

Wow. This woman reminded him of Asano. 

“Why don’t we call you Miss Bitch?” Karma calls out.

Miss Bitch yells and, well, bitches about it, especially when the class readily jumps onto the bandwagon and agrees that it is, indeed, an apt name.

They watch Miss Bitch’s spectacular failure of an assassination, laughs about it, dubs her Bitch-sensei, and then goes on their separate ways. Then-

“Who was that?”

“Christ!” Karma startles, tripping over air on the sidewalk. Asano falls into step beside him, looking unnecessarily amused. 

“Don’t sneak up on people!” Karma scolds. “Announce your presence. And while we’re on the topic, don’t just disappear into thin air, say goodbye or something.” 

“Fine,” Asano says. “So who was that?”

“Our new languages teacher,” Karma tells him. “She’s a bitch. We call her Bitch-sensei. She was a professional assassin that the government hired to take a crack at killing Koro-sensei, but she failed.”

“No normal human can kill him,” Asano says.

“That’s,” Karma blinks, “really high praise for Koro-sensei.”

“It’s fact,” Asano says. 

“Can you kill Koro-sensei?” Karma asks, genuinely curious. He’d wondered about it before. The phrasing of Asano’s sentence was deliberate, Karma wonders if he meant half-humans were in the equation.

Asano grins at him, all sharp teeth. 

“Why doesn’t your dad just,” Karma mimes slicing himself across the throat. “I mean, it’s a lot of money.”

“We have no need for material things,” Asano dismisses. “And it would be rather suspicious, don’t you think, if both of us could effortlessly subdue Koro-sensei?”

“And a class of fifteen year olds wouldn’t be?” Karma mutters. “But that doesn’t answer my question - well, okay, it does. But it raises new ones, like, where do you and your dad get all your money? From like the demon world?”

“No,” Asano says. “My father is just capable of establishing business and earning an income well in a human society. There is no need for demonic assistance.”

“Is that why you two are in the human world? Because you’re powerful here? Small fish in an ocean but big fish in a pond - wait, I didn’t mean to imply that you two are underdogs as demons, I’m pretty sure you two are powerful demons-”

Asano’s eyes flash a dangerous crimson, and Karma’s stomach tingles warningly. He decides to shut up.

“There is a lot,” Asano says, “that you don’t understand, and don’t need to. I suggest you keep out of demon politics.” 

He’s gone in the next blink, and Karma shivers a little. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need a life, you guys. I need a life and a new stylus. [Karushuu florist AU](https://gwendeeagain.tumblr.com/post/187455335189/) anyone?


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, how is everyone!?

**Don't go to an unknown city without a map or a demon tour guide**

Before he knows it, over half a year has passed since he'd found out Asano's secret. The midterms come and go without much fanfare: Karma gets fourth place, Asano gets first as usual, and 3-E distresses over their grades despite their improvement. 

"Sucks," Karma says, looking over this test papers with a pursed lip. He glances at Asano, who's quietly flipping through his own papers. "Do you have like, demon-enhanced learning abilities?"

"No," Asano says, without looking up. 

There's a class trip coming ups. Karma's a little excited about it, and his class is buzzing with assassination plans. He does have a question, though. "Are you coming with me?'

"On your class trip?" Asano gives him a confused look. "No. Why would I?"

Why would he? That's a weird thought. It's a class trip, for god's sake, and Asano isn't part of their class. He's not a pet, either, for Karma to carry around. He doesn't say that.

Asano gives him an odd look. "Just call me if you need me," he says.

"I don't have your phone number," Karma says awkwardly.

Asano rolls his eyes and looks exasperated, like it was an unfair question. "With the bond, idiot," he says.

"Oh." Karma scrunches up his face. "How do I do that? Say your name out loud?"

"If you want to look like an idiot," Asano agrees.

"Well…" Karma frowns down at his phone. "Can I still get your number, though?"

A little smile quirks up on the side of Asano’s mouth. He gestures for Karma’s phone and Karma watches him tap his phone number in.

“Boring,” Karma declares, seeing the contact name as plain old “Asano Gakushuu”. He changes it to “Demon Boy.” Asano rolls his eyes but he doesn’t snatch the phone away to change it.

Their class trip starts out largely uneventful. Koro-sensei had written obnoxiously large guide books to navigate Kyoto, but it’s so long and draggy, like hell Karma was going to read it. They end up in a bright bustling city that's... okay, it's a city. Cities all look the same, in Karma's opinion, tall buildings and tons of people and slightly different public transport systems. But his classmates seem interested in the novelty, at least, so Karma lets them have their fun. They split up in groups to look over assassination plans, and Karma ends up with Nagisa, Sugino, Okuda, Kayano and Kanzaki.

“Maybe we can assassinate him with pudding,” Kayano muses.

Okuda bounces on her toes. “Poison pudding?”

“Where are we going to find pudding in Kyoto?” Sugino asks.

Karma stares. “Are you stupid?”

They squabble for a bit, walking around and staring into shops, when Karma feels a chill run down his spine. He’s gotten into a lot of fights and has a penchant for telling when he’s being targeted, and true enough, they’re ambushed by a couple of high-schoolers. He’s hit hard on the head before he has time to react and when he comes to, Kayano and Kanzaki are gone.

“Shit,” Karma growls, curling his hands into fists. This was a major hindrance on his part. “if only I’d seen-”

“It’s not your fault, Karma,” Nagisa says. “We have to focus on getting the girls back.”

"Yeah,” Sugino says. He and Nagisa starts discussing about possible routes the high schoolers could have gone, and Karma thinks about planting a fist through the wall, when a hand grips his shoulder hard.

Karma screams in shock and whirls around. "Oh my god-"

"Shut up, no one else sees me, you look like an idiot," Asano says quickly. Karma shuts with mouth with an audible click.

"I felt your pain and distress," Asano says. "Tell me what happened."

Karma turns to look at Nagisa, Okuda and Sugino, who are regarding him with concern after his outburst. He doesn't address his reaction. "We need to find out where those high schoolers kidnapped Kanzaki and Kayano to."

Asano's eyes widen. 

"Four of them with two middle school girls," Karma says, "they couldn't have gone far."

In his periphery, Karma sees Asano's eyes glow red. Wings that should have been invisible mere seconds ago unfurl from his back, feathers inky black, and Karma doesn't stare even though he's really curious. Okay, yeah, he stares a little. He sees Asano take off from the corner of his eye.

“Maybe the guidebook will help,” Nagisa says abruptly. He pulls the monstrosity out of his bag. 

“You brought that thing?!”

“I thought it would be useful,” he murmurs.”Ah, there’s a section here, what to do if you or your teammates got kidnapped.”

“Damn octopus,” Sugino mutters. “What does it say?”

“It highlighted several possible areas that someone might hide hostages in,” Nagisa furrows his brows, “but there are too many, we can’t possibly search them all.” Karma leans over his shoulder and looks at the map of Kyoto, but it’s a jumbled mess of “hotspots” that Koro-sensei had outlined. What gives?

Something drops out of the sky. Karma flinches, which gets more strange looks, but it’s just Asano. He doesn’t have his wings. “I found them.”

“I know where they are,” Karma says. 

“Huh? You can tell from the map?” Okuda and Sugino look impressed, but Nagisa looks at him suspiciously. 

“Yeah,” Karma says. Asano nods at him. He’s still in his school uniform and jacket, and he adjusts his sleeves as he walks around the group and out of the alleyway. Karma goes off after him.

“Do you need the map?” Nagisa calls. The trio chase him.

“Nope,” Karma says. Asano doesn’t turn around, walking down streets and alleyways and twisting and turning that Karma isn’t even sure if he knows where he’s going. And he supposes looking confused while trying to lead others is worrying because Nagisa asks him several times if they should slow down and think about a plan. Okuda has her phone out and she’s in a nervous conversation with Karasuma-sensei.

Very abruptly, Asano breaks into a sprint. Shit, did something happen? Karma starts running, and they turn down another alleyway and come across what seems to be a large padlocked door in front of an empty warehouse. Sugino, Nagisa and Okuda catch up to them, panting.

“Put your hand on the lock,” Asano says quickly.

Karma doesn’t ask. He reaches forward to hold the padlock, and Asano curls his hand over Karma’s. Their connection spikes for a bit, and with a tug, the lock snaps and falls to the ground in two pieces. 

“Woah,” Sugino says, “Karma, you’re really strong!”

“Uh, sure,” Karma says. His fingers are still tingling. Asano gives him an amused look and Karma kicks the door down just for dramatic effect.

Kayano and Kanzaki are there, tied up, as with the four highschoolers who are now staring at the interruption with similar shocks of disbelief. Behind him, Karma hears Okuda and Sugino greet Koro-sensei, and by his side, Asano’s blinking lazily, eyes glowing red.

They probably can’t see him either, but whatever, it's still badass.

“Oh, you all are so dead,” Karma says.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG you guy's I'm so hyped for [rarepair week](https://handy-dandy-headcanons.tumblr.com/post/187052555016/)! Everyone should totally join in. Karushuu isn't considered a rare-pair (which I am sad and delighted about) ((When is Karushuu week??? Is it a thing that still exists)) You bet your ass I'm going to be spamming obscure rare-pairs, if you know me you might know the ones I mean ;) but if you do have any otps you trust me with...? HAHA


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! This is a slow update and I'm sorry but it might slow down for a bit, my midterms are coming up :( Hope you like this chapter! You can still catch me on tumblr (gwendeeagain) and I won't disappear off the face of the earth.

“What the hell is that?”

“I don’t know,” Isogai says. There’s a giant black box at the back of their classroom. 

“Some government officials brought it in,” Nagisa says.

“Hm,” says Karma. He narrows his eyes at it. There’s a screen, so it’s a device of some sort, but for what?

Asano appears next to him in a blink. Karma doesn’t react, because he’s expecting it. “What?!” Asano snaps, looking incredibly annoyed.

After the Kyoto school trip, Karma finds out two things. The first of which is that if he thinks or feels an emotion hard enough, such as distress or confusion or anger, it translates through their connection and Asano is worried enough to come find him. The second fact is that his demon is a tsundere and vehemently corrects worry to “annoyed, I’m annoyed enough to come here and make you shut up and stop bothering me!” but really, Karma knows the truth.

“What the heck is that?” Asano says. He’s across the classroom in an instant, poking around the device. 

Karma shrugs. Then realizes he looks like an idiot. Luckily, no one’s looking at him.

Karasuma-sensei walks in, looking far too weary for someone his age. Asano snickers, sitting on top of the machine, but he listens in interest when Karasuma-sensei explains to them about the Autonomously Intelligent Fixed Artillery, or Ritsu.

“She is in the official records an exchange student,” Karasuma-sensei says, shuffling papers. “There is supposed to be a second exchange student joining the class but he’s, ah, presently unavailable.”

“Is the second student also a robot?” Okajima asks.

“No.” Karasuma-sensei adjusts his tie. “Ritsu, would you please introduce yourself?”

The screen blinks to life. There’s a digital avatar of a girl there, with light eyes and lavender hair. Asano leans over in interest, blocking Karma’s view but no one else’s, because he’s an asshole like that. Karma glares at the back of Asano’s head. 

In retaliation, Asano’s wings appear, completely obscuring the device.

“Oh come on,” Karma says softly. Everyone else, who has a clear and unobstructed view of Ritsu and a non-muffled feed of her voice, seen unconcerned.

Asano disappears when lesson starts, apparently not curious enough to be skipping class. That’s a shame, really, because that’s when the fun starts, namely, Ritsu raining hell. Karma should have played truant today. 

He tries to project as much anger and hatred as he can through the bond, and a brief moment later Asano appears in the middle of the classroom. Disappears, then appears again out of the line of fire, brushing Koro-sensei pellets off his clothes with a bewildered expression on his face.

“Shut that thing off!” Karma yells, because everyone is also screaming similar sentiments.

Asano walks over, his eyes briefly glow red, and Ritsu powers down.

“Holy shit,” Terasaka says. 

Everybody gets up and stretches, relieved from the momentary lapse in fire, and someone flips Ritsu the bird. Asano rolls his eyes and disappears.  Ritsu blinks back to the screen, a frown on her face. “I seem to have encountered a problem on my servers,” she says. “I’m afraid that I will be unable to assist you in the meantime while I resolve the issue.”

“That’s good,” Maehara says. "Damn thing."

"God," Karma says. Ritsu stays inactive for the rest of the day, and the next day it seems that Koro-sensei had outfitted her to be some sort of cute actual classmate with emotions and such, which isn't that much of a foreign concept to Karma, he supposes, how funny that Ritsu wasn't even the first non-human human he knew. Takebayashi was practically drooling. 

Nothing else of note happens that day, with Ritsu a happy bubbly girl that doesn’t need to pay attention to lessons because she’s a, well, an artificial intelligence. Instead, she spends the whole time trying to figure out what had interfered with her circuits the day prior - her solution had been simply to turn herself off and on again, but running diagnostics had revealed nothing out of the ordinary. It takes all of Karma’s willpower not to burst out laughing.

Asano drops by later that afternoon during lunch, and stares into Ritsu’s pixelated avatar eyes. Ritsu stares forward past him blankly, continuing a pleasant conversation with Kayano. 

“So this is your new classmate,” Asano hums. 

Karma opens his mouth to speak, then closes it. He turns to Nagisa. “I wonder who our other new classmate would be.”

“Probably a child assassin prodigy,” Nakamura says, “someone that can help with the assassination, definitely.”

Isogai wrinkles his nose. “Is that legal?”

Maehara throws his hands in the air. “Is anything happening in this classroom legal, even?”

Karma watches tamagoyaki blink out of sight one by one from his bento box. “Breaking the laws of time and space,” he says. Asano snickers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> <3


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok I finished my assignments a day early (hehe) so i decided to tap something out! Hope it's fun!

**Please be reminded that other people can see visible things too.**

Their second exchange student breaks down a wall.

It's inches from Karma's head. Karma was starting to get used to dramatic entrances in his periphery and he does jump a little in his seat, but he mostly ignores it because he doesn’t want to draw any more attention to himself. 

Wait, why is everyone looking at him?

No, they’re looking behind him. 

Why are they looking behind him?

Karma sees everyone staring behind him. Very slowly, he turns around and stares too. 

There was a white-haired, golden-eyed boy staring blankly into the classroom, and his gaze sweeps over their head. Very much unlike Asano in any shape or form. Oh okay, so this is real and normal people can see it. Cool. 

The boy walks over, pats Karma on the head like a dog, and takes an empty seat.

Karma blinks at the hole in the wall. It's raining out.

And then, the unthinkable, unbelievable happens - the new exchange student challenges Koro-sensei to a duel to the death. Which... Karma doesn't know why the class acts so shocked, he kind of expects it. Isn't this the same ritual all the newcomers go through, himself included? Then they fail and begrudgingly accept Koro-sensei as a teacher or a colleague, in Bitch-sensei's case-

-ohmygodOHMYGOD HE HAS TENTACLES?!

Asano pops up next to him, looking disgruntled. "What do you- oh my god, who is that?"

Karma shakes his head, eyes wide. He leans forward in his seat.

The events that transpire are confusing, to say the least. Unexpectedly, the kid, Itona, introduces himself as Koro-sensei's... brother, with the implications that the tentacles were genetic. What did their parents look like?!

This development freaks Koro-sensei out as much as the rest of them, and Asano's eyes glow briefly red but he shakes his head.

Expectedly, Itona loses, despite the tentacles.

Unexpectedly, his mysterious guardian in a large white cloak with a marvelously creative alias Shiro, appears to sedate the poor child, and drags the kid off. Karma almost feels a smidge of pity for him.

"Well," Karasuma-sensei says. 

The class explodes into chaotic discussion.

"Who was that?" Karma asks, eyes wide. 

Asano purses his lips. "I don't know," he says, the same time Koro-sensei resumes freaking out. 

"You don't know?" Karma ignores Koro-sensei. "You're a demon."

"I'm not omninescent," Asano glares. "I use google like everyone else."

"That's rude, Karma," Isogai says, unaware that Karma is in conversation with an actual demon.

"Find out," Karma says.

"How?!" Koro-sensei wails, also unaware that Karma is in conversation with an actual demon. Because otherwise Karma would be speaking to thin air and that's an inconceivable thought, isn't it?

"Is that a request?"

"Yes," Karma says.

Terasaka gives Karma an odd look. "Yes?"

Karma blinks. "Uh, yes."

"Hm," Asano says, snickering a little, and he blinks out of Karma's view, only to reappear and make himself comfortable on top of Ritsu's monitor. Karma feels a little awkward then, with the entire class staring at him and his strange replies to Koro-sensei's incomprehensible sobs. He rubs his arms. 

"Karma, are you okay?" It's Nagisa, looking concerned.

"That was kind of weird, wasn't it?" Karma says. He turns to look at the hole in the wall. 

"Yeah," Nagisa says, frowning. "Who do you think that guy was? Shiro, was it?"

Shiro. "He wasn't good news, that's for sure," Karma says. 

The atmosphere in class is much weirder after that. Koro-sensei reiterates that he doesn't have any siblings, and if he did, they surely wouldn't be as young as Itona was, he was as old as the principal for god's sake who had a son this age, wait that was not what he meant to say-

Karma listens disinterestedly, pushing a pencil around and waiting for actual useful information to be disseminated to him, but Asano was off in school and refused to gather intelligence at the expense of his lessons which Karma had tried to reason that he didn't need.

But arguing with an invisible demon that no one else in the room can see and trying to look sane had its drawbacks. In short, Karma lost. 

He sulks.

"Don't be so mopey," Asano says, who had returned to steal Karma's lunch but not find out who Itona and Shiro are. "I'm blessing you with my presence." He flicks a pen off the table. 

Karma glares wordlessly. 

"You dropped your pen, Karma," Okuda tells him softly.

"You're nice, Okuda," Karma says, still glaring at empty space. "Unlike some people."

Terasaka looks at him affronted. "What?!" He says. "Did you think I airbended your pen off your table?"

Karma blinks. Asano snickers. Right.

"You're acting weird, Karma," Kayano says. "Are you sick?"

"No," Karma says, rather unconvincingly. Asano slowly pushes his second pen off the table.

"God's sake," Karma says. He picks that pen up too, and then scratches a devil's trap onto his table - a perfect one, mind you, and Asano gives him an unimpressed look.

"No vandalism!" Isogai scolds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god this is the longest interval of non-update, isn't it?


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi hi hi! How is everyone doing? I have so many fic ideas and chapter drafts BUT so many essays to write!! I'm dying

**3 ways to feel better when you're lonely (with pictures)**

"Hey, I- stop screaming, it's me, what- stop- what are you cooking for dinner?"

"Holy shit!" Karma wraps his arms around his bare chest. "Couldn't you wait until I put on some clothes?!"

Very slowly, Asano's eyes drag up and down Karma's frame. He graces Karma with the world's flattest look, and lets out a judgmental hum.

"Get out!" Karma throws the thing nearest to him. It's a book.

Asano catches it, just to be a showoff. "But what are you-"

"Udon," Karma snaps.

"I don't want udon," Asano straight out whines like a little baby whiny demon because that's what he is. An insufferable tiny imp. "You made that yesterday."

"I didn't cook the entire pack," Karma says. He really doesn't want to have this debate shirtless. "Can you go away?"

Asano rolls his eyes. "It's nothing I haven't seen before anyways," he says, and blinks out of si-

"-wait what the hell does that mean?! Asano!!"

Somewhere in his house, laughter rings out. Karma huffs but throws on a sweater - he thanks god he was already wearing pants, and pads downstairs to where Asano is already at the dining table, pouring over some notes. Karma looks over his shoulder.

"That's not homework," he says.

"Course not," Asano tells him.

"What language is that? Demon-ese?"

Asano raises an eyebrow. "Portuguese, actually."

"Oh," Karma says. There's a short pause. "But is there-"

"Yes, Karma, there are unique demon languages you've never heard of before," Asano says, like Karma cooking entire meals isn't quite worth divulging tiny bits of information about his life. 

Karma huffs. "Fine, keep your secrets." He quickly brings the water to a boil and watches as the soup simmers, and Asano comes up behind him to stare into the udon.

Karma watches him. Steam is blowing directly at his face and he remains unaffected. How weird.

"What's the hottest temperature you can take?"

"The burning flames of hell," Asano says playfully. 

"Uh huh," Karma says. "so if I stuff you in the oven and bake you with the cookies, you'll survive?"

"_You_ won't," Asano says. His eyes glow briefly red but there's no aggression in it. "It'd be uncomfortable," he acquieses. 

"Huh," says Karma. "How hot is hell, anyways?"

"I don't know," Asano says. 

That's an odd answer. Karma doesn't know if Asano is purposefully evasive of all hell and demon-related questions, or if he just genuinely doesn't know, like trivia about half-demons and what not. Being the only one around was strange, why did Asano Senior choose to... uh... be intimate with a human woman, especially with love out of the picture? Maybe they just weren't thermometers in hell?

Anyhow, Karma doesn't push. "Okay," he says. 

Asano looks at him, considering. Then he says, "Itona Horibe."

"Huh? Itona what?" Itona, like not-Korosensei's-sibling Itona?

"Itona Horibe, son of Zekuu Horibe of Horibe electronics," Asano says. "They went bankrupt 5 years ago, but Horibe managed enough funds to restart his business in a less competitive market outside of Tokyo. Itona is currently residing in an apartment with his uncle who is rather neglectful with his guardianship and he spends most days in Shiro's laboratory, which-"

"Wait, wait," Karma interrupts, "how do you know all this?!"

Asano gives him a baleful look. "I found out."

"You were the one saying you weren't omniscient," Karma crosses his arms. 

"Look, how I got the information doesn't matter, what matters I have it," Asano says, rolling his eyes. "Do you want to know or not?"

"Yes, I do," Karma says. "Turn off the heat, will you?"

Asano steps aside to let Karma finish cooking and plating the udon, and then Karma lets Asano finish dinner because there's no coming between his demon and his meal save for an event of catastrophic proportions, and even then Karma's sure Asano would wait to finish eating before dealing with the end of the world. 

That, and Asano's always in a substantially better mood after he eats.

The udon is finished in record time, the dishes are done in a literal blink of an eye, and Karma says, "so, about Itona."

"Shiro is a biologist," Asano tells Karma, "his real name is Kotarou Yanagisawa, and he has a laboratory outside of Tokyo. His research is government sanctioned and funded. It's on dark matter, more specifically the effects of humans and dark matter."

"Dark matter?" Karma says.

"Very interesting phenomenon," Asano nods. "Dark matter infused with the human body produces fascinating results that include enhanced speed and strength. Direct absorption of the dark matter would result in a, ah, Koro-sensei situation, in which the human body is unable to handle the rapidly growing energy and it builds until he blows up. There are more sustainable ways of infusing the dark matter, however, where the main concentration of that matter is attached separately like an extra limb - namely, the tentacles, to prevent the matter from overwhelming the body and to facilitate easy handling." 

Karma scrunches up his face. "How do you know all these? Does that mean Koro-sensei was once human?"

"Yes," Asano says. "I was unable to find records on him but it's clear that he was once experimented on by Shiro, as his lab is the only one conducting the dark matter research."

"Did you find any weaknesses?"

An odd look comes across Asano's face. "Sort of," he says.

"Sort of?" Karma demands. "What?"

"It's... look, it doesn't matter. The octopus is too fast for humans to deal any damage regardless of what weaknesses he may or may not possess," Asano waves a hand. "Focus on honing your subpar assassination skills, and more importantly, pay attention to your teacher."

Karma frowns. "What about Itona, then?"

Asano's expression turns stranger. "Nothing you should concern yourself with particularly as of now," he says, "I will take care of anything that you are unable to deal with, but in the meantime I'm afraid I would be rather occupied so pardon me if I don't assist for situations that you are able to handle." 

That's a red flag if Karma knows one. "Asano, what are you-"

"Bye," Asano says, and blinks out of sight. Karma stares into his empty dining room in frustration.

Asano's ignoring him. He's been distant since the information dump in Karma's dining room, off doing things or who knows what. Not that Karma feels left out or anything because he doesn't, Asano has been... doing things without him ever since, well, forever. It was just a little strange because Asano had pretty much been a constant presence and Karma's getting used to spending mealtimes with someone, but now Karma's back to eating alone.

This is fine. He's not Asano's keeper, and he's not lonely. They're in a regular business relationship.

"Asano," Karma calls out, in the middle of his room at night. The bond tugs lightly. Asano doesn't appear out of thin air to scare Karma. Karma even looks out his window, just in case.

Yeah. Asano's gone to do his own thing and Karma's bored.

His boredom is slightly alleviated when they get another new PE teacher so that Karasuma-sensei could do more government work. Where's his replacement demon? How unfair, there should really be a customer service department for demonic contracts. 

Except that the amusement doesn't last long, either.

"Are you coming to PE today, Karma?" Nagisa asks him, gathering up his gym uniform, and Karma shrugs.

"Nah, don't feel like it," he says. "The new teacher gives me the creeps. You can't lie and say he doesn't."

"Well he's pretty great so far, I think we should give him the benefit of doubt..." Nagisa mumbles.

"Whatever," Karma says. "Let me know if he turns out to be some secret psychopath, okay? I'll trap him in a devil's circle for you."

"Sure," Nagisa humors. "You're really great at drawing those, by the way."

Karma blinks at him. "Yeah," he says lamely. 

It takes a few more days of an Asano-less existence until he finds out that their PE teacher is, in fact, a secret psychopath, and was promptly disposed of by Nagisa AND the principal, which is a sight he wished he could see.

Was Nagisa a secret half-demon, too? That boy was seriously hiding some hidden bloodlust.

"Principal Asano is scary," Maehara says, "when he appeared I thought I was going to piss myself."

"Hmph," Yada crosses her arms. "Between them I'd say the real devil is Takaoka."

Karma snorts. 

"Say, Karma, you should've been there," Muramatsu says, punching the air. "Given that ass a run for his money!"

"Sure would have liked witnessing Nagisa in action," Karma agrees.

Asano visits him that night, the first time in a week, laughing a little. "I heard the news," he says, "must have been a sight, huh?"

Karma's stomach twists weirdly, and Asano shoots him a quizzical look. "I wasn't there," Karma tells him. "I skipped class."

"Oh," Asano says. "I didn't know that."

Yeah. Where the hell have you been? Karma shrugs in response.

Asano perches at the edge of the table. "Are you cooking?" He says.

"I already ate," Karma says. He had dinner with Nagisa because he didn't fancy another quiet meal. 

Asano shrugs. "That's okay," he says, neither his face nor the bond betraying any information. "By the way, Shiro would be paying your class a visit soon. You might want to keep an eye out."

When he leaves without a puff of smoke, Karma gets to thinking. Did Asano spend the week keeping an eye on Shiro? No, that wouldn't make sense... would it? Karma hadn't requested it specifically of him, just the information he'd already received. Asano must have been curious of his own accord, but then he wouldn't bother telling Karma about it. And what would Asano have done anyways, followed Shiro around while invisible? He would never do something that was that much of a waste of time. Would he?

Luckily, he doesn't have to dwell on the situation much longer. Shiro and Itona return to challenge Koro-sensei in the midst of class bonding and even pulls Terasaka along with it, that idiot.

Karma breaks down the situation. He tries calling on Asano, and the bond in his stomach tugs uselessly at a brick wall and Karma thinks that Asano's holding true to not interfering. It feels a little like a rejection, after the week of non-response that Asano ignores Karma after being called on. Karma tries not to dwell on it.

He gives Terasaka instructions that even he can't fuck up and watches as the events played out. The tentacles were susceptible to water and whatever the anti-sensei materials were made of, which must be manufactured by Shiro. Shiro was clearly on the side of the government, which what Asano said about his research and that Itona was a planned addition to the classroom, but things surely couldn't be this simple.

Was that what Asano was trying to find out? 

But... that was strange, too. 

Karma didn't think it was possible, but Asano's appearances became even more scarce after Shiro's second stint, which frustrates him. And then even more when he finds out that Asano has apparently enough time to make stupid bets with 3-A against 3-E like he actually cares about things like this. 

"What the hell is he doing?" Karma mutters. He projects irritation through the bond.

Increased irritation comes flooding back. Ugh.

"Who is what doing?" Nagisa asks him, alarmed.

"Uh," Karma blinks. "Koro-sensei."

"You mean his wager?" Nagisa says. "If we place first in a subject, we get to destroy a tentacle?"

Wait, what? "Yeah," Karma says, "what's up with that?"

"I think it's great," Isogai enthuses from his seat, where he's in the midst of an animated discussion with Kataoka. "It really gives us a fighting chance. And with all our improvement, we can ace those exams and win 3-A's bet, no sweat!"

"Yeah!" Nakamura punches the air. "Just you wait, I'm taking out a tentacle for myself!"

"Sure," Karma humors. First place in the subject? Easy. He doubts Asano was getting any studying done with whatever he was up to. Who cares what he's doing? Karma's going to swipe the rug from under his feet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wonder what Asano's up to.   
(If you know me, honestly, you'd know. You'd Know.)
> 
> I'm also spamming on tumblr because... I don't know. I like tumblr. I go by gwendeeagain and I post stupid shit, you can't miss it.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't deal... with this...

What. The fuck.

How dare he. How dare he?!

"ASANO!!!"

Koro-sensei appears in a flash next to him, giggling. "Now, now, Karma. You shouldn't get mad at someone else for your mistakes. If you hadn't slacked off instead of studying, you wouldn't-"

"Buzz off!" Karma snaps at him. "He wasn't even studying anyways! Off doing who knows what!!"

"Doing what?" Nakamura says. 

"Unlike you," a voice says, and Karma whips around to see Asano staring back smugly, "I can multitask." He waves a paper in front of Karma's face, the first mark placing taunting him.

"Aargh!" Karma groans. He stalks out of class to get a breath of fresh air, and Asano follows him out. Karma kicks a tree trunk.

"Let's see where you lost those marks," Asano sings, and the paper disappears from Karma's hand and reappears in his. "Oh, Akabane, this is just amateur," he sighs, "a common misconception, sure, but-"

"Oh, shut up, you stupid demon," Karma snaps. "You're the one who's gallivanting off to who knows where this entire time, distracting me with whatever you have up to. If it wasn't for your end of the bond being a restless bitch the entire time I would've aced this."

Asano narrows his eyes, and the paper appears back in Karma's hands. He crosses his arms. "Oh? Look at the difference, Akabane, someone was struggling and it sure wasn't me. Are you sure you're not just projecting your inabilities?"

Karma bristles. "If you'd just be clear with me on what you've been doing-"

Asano's eyes flash a terrifying red, and Karma instantly gets the memo that he's fucked up. "Sorry, Master," Asano drawls with acidity, taking a dramatic bow at the waist. "I'd make sure I'm accountable at all times going forward. What color do you want my leash to be?"

Karma feels something heavy in his throat, and the bond churns and burns between them. Shit. "Wait," he tries, "I didn't mean-"

Asano snarls at him, and Karma stumbles back. His wings whip out and beat angrily, stirring up the grass and sending leaves flying at Karma's face. Then he takes off, making special care to almost slice Karma's cheek with a wing, and Karma watches in contrition as Asano blinks out of view.

"Fuck," Karma says. 

"Are you alright?" Nagisa comes up to him, looking concerned. "I saw a draft come out of nowhere right at you."

Karma picks a dried leaf from his hair. "I angered a wind spirit." How do you apologize to demons or supernatural creatures like... wind spirits? He doesn't think the internet would help.

"Uh," Nagisa says.

Karma shakes his head. "Let's go back to class." 

Asano's frankly ridiculous bet with 3-E - principal's son human Asano as they all know him, of course, had wagered about 3-E's exam scores and lost, and now they got to make one request of him. Karma finds out the class had decided on going to Okinawa, the resort that was a privilege for the top students of the school. What a silly prize.  He wonders what Asano's side of the bet would have been. There was no way to ask him now.

"Hey, Okuda," Karma says, and she turns around to look at him. "How would you apologize to someone?"

The class turns to stare at him in unnerving synchronization. Yeah, maybe he shouldn't have asked this out loud in class. Even Koro-sensei freezes mid-tentacle flail of professing his pride for his students. Someone in the front row chokes, and Okuda says, "what?!" 

Quick, think. "I angered a wind spirit," Karma says, "ask Nagisa."

Great.

"It was true," Nagisa says solemnly, "the wind was very mad at Karma today."

"Oh." There's a pause. "Build a shrine?" 

Would Asano like a shrine?

"Like a real wind spirit?" Fuwa says, vibrating in her seat. 

Karma blinks. "No."

"Aw," Fuwa says, slouching. Karma frowns. 

"Let's say it was a real wind spirit," he says, "what would I do?"

Fuwa perks up again. "Well, a virgin blood sacrifice would help!"

"Where am I supposed to get a-" Karma starts, and them flushes slightly. "Okay, but 'would help'? So it's not even like a guarantee?"

"Nothing is a guarantee while dealing with spirits," she says seriously.

"What did you even do to make a wind spirit mad at you?" Nakamura says, disbelief in her voice. "Assuming a wind spirit is, in fact, a thing that exists."

"If I tell you, he might kill me," Karma says miserably.

"So it's a he?!" Fuwa jumps out of her seat. "Give me the details!"

"Now, now," Koro-sensei says. "I'm sure Karma will, uh, get back in the good books his wind spirit soon. Back to the trip-"

"Hey, sensei, you're a," Maehara waves a hand, "whatever. Do you know any wind spirits too?" 

No," Koro-sensei says. "But how very interesting... I may know an acquaintance or two..."

Karma narrows his eyes at him. "You're not supposed to know anything. You're just as human as the rest of us."

Immediately, Koro-sensei throws his tentacles in the air and starts flailing about. "How do you know I'm human?!?!"

Luckily, before Karma can fuck things up anymore with forbidden knowledge he’s not supposed to have, Nakamura comes to his rescue. "You say that like it isn't obvious, sensei," she rolls her eyes. "There aren't such things as the supernatural," she gives Karma a pointed look, to which he sticks her tongue out at. "You're just like Itona, and he's plenty human."

As Koro-sensei continues ranting, Karma lets his thoughts drift. He doubts Asano wants a... virgin sacrifice, but a shrine might befit someone with his ego. Karma definitely wasn't going to build a shrine, though. Where would he even keep one? In his house?

"Did you really get into a fight with a wind spirit?" Nagisa asks him.

"Of course not," Karma says. That'd be crazy. Like a demon isn't? His mind supplies traitorously.

"Kay," Nagisa says, still eyeing him weirdly. "I think a good first step is just apologizing."

"What, do I just say it out loud?" Karma wonders, then realizes what he said and stares at Nagisa. Nagisa stares back, equally bewildered, and he says, "no, to the person you want to apologize to."

God bless Nagisa's heart. "Thanks," Karma says.

"No problem," Nagisa says, smiling. What a sweetheart.

But back to Karma's problem at hand. He walks past the Asano estate on the way home and almost considers going up to it, god forbid, thinks, what the fuck? and hightails it out of there. Draws an imaginary devil's trap on his palm just for good measure.

The bond remains stubbornly unresponsive, like Asano had tried to build a brick wall between them, but Karma could still feel him seething with anger. It makes his stomach turn. He cooks an expansive meal that night, but then stares at it dejectedly when demons of any sort fail to appear in his dining room. He tries to project more apologetic feelings through the bond.

Nothing. 

"Nagisa," Karma whines later over a phone call, partway into his half of the dinner. "I can't apologize."

"Karma," Nagisa says disapprovingly.

"Not because I don't want to! I can't get in touch with him." Karma stuffs a roll into his mouth. 

"Just send a text and see if he replies," Nagisa says. "Maybe he's just busy now."

Karma pauses.

"Uh,” Nagisa says, “Karma? Hello?"

"I could text him," Karma gasps in awe. Nagisa was the genius between them. “I could text him!”

"Wait, how were you- uh, nevermind. Good luck?"

"Thanks," Karma says. He hangs up, formulates a quick text, and sends it to Asano. 

Asano doesn't reply immediately. How rude. What's the point of instant messaging if it wasn't instant?

Karma sighs. Maybe Asano would reply in the morning like Nagisa said- holy sHIT!

"Asano!" Karma stands up so fast his chair clatters to the ground. Asano gives him a baleful look from across the table and takes a small sip of water. 

"I came for the food," he says easily, and pops a piece of meat into his mouth. The bond stirs between them, uneasy.

"Look, I wanted to apologize," Karma starts, but Asano cuts him off. 

"I know," he rolls his eyes. "I felt your remorse all day. It's disgusting."

There’s a pause between them. Karma wrings his hands. “It's none of my business what you do in your downtime and it was insensitive."

Asano cocks his head and looks at him for a moment. “I accept your apology.” He looks up and flicks Karma a sharp smile - dangerous, chilling, and Karma thinks he misses it, maybe. 

Karma turns around to see his chair upright again, and he slides back into his seat. "Will you come to Okinawa with us?"

Asano stills. “It’s your class trip.”

“I know. It might be fun. You can try to assassinate Koro-sensei.” Karma pushes several more dishes in Asano’s direction, and watches him eat. Their bond bubbles with satisfaction. “I told my class you were a wind spirit, by the way.”

Asano chokes on his rice. “You told them I was a what?!”

“A wind spirit,” Karma says. “Nagisa saw the wind get very angry at me today.”

Asano snickers. “That’s fucking stupid.”

Karma grins. “Yeah. So, Okaniwa?”

“Fine,” Asano says. “Don’t expect me to help with any of the assassination.”

"I wouldn't dream," Karma says. "Try the napa, it's a new recipe."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHHHHHH


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! If you've read my latest ficlet "riiiiiinnnnngggg." this is the chapter for you. If you haven't, you should, but I'm sure those who have would vehemently urge you not to.

"Hey Karma," Terasaka says, channeling his annoying energy. "Is your wind spirit here today?"

They're already on the beachfront of Okaniwa resort, having dumped their luggage in the hotel and now out for some sun. Karma doesn't know why he even bothered joining the class. He should have just stayed in his room and roped Asano into a game of cards or something. 

Karma looks to his right, where said demon is lounging on... thin air in casual clothes, stretching. Asano looks back and shrugs.

That exchange - or rather, Karma staring into thin air - doesn't go unnoticed. Fuwa pushes past Kanzaki and Okuda to look at Karma's empty right with bright eyes. "Hello, wind spirit!" 

"Fuwa," Nakamura starts, "that's not-"

"He's not here," Karma says.

"Aww," Fuwa says, looking visibly disappointed. The rest of the class rolls their eyes and continue chatting, and ahead of them Karasuma-sensei is speaking into his phone. Fuwa gets dragged off by Yada and eventually Terasaka stops finding Karma's momentary lapse in awareness amusing and wanders off to do his own thing. His classmates are off playing in the seawater and Karma deliberates between going back to his room or joining Kayano in her quest to suffocate Nagisa with sand, when Bitch-sensei slides by him.

"Hey," she says, voice unusually serious and eyes hard, "your spirit's here, right?"

"Huh?" Karma looks innocently at her. "Spirits don't exist. Did the sun fry your brain?"

"Don't be smart with me," Bitch-sensei snaps, crossing her arms, and then stares directly at where Asano is hovering a few feet next to Karma, and Karma freezes.

"There's nothing there," Karma insists. "Why don't you go flirt with Karasuma-sensei?"

Whatever Bitch-sensei is on, she's undeterred. "You're lying to me, brat," she hisses. 

"God, you're weird," Karma says, aiming for nonchalance, and turns around-

-just as a gunshot rings out.

Asano moves out of the way, and the bullet embeds itself in the sand, dead centre of where he had been a second prior.

"Jelavic!" Karasuma-sensei hollers.

Wait, could she actually see-

"There was something," Bitch-sensei insists, even as Karasuma-sensei wrestles the firearm from her and berates her for firing in close shot of the children. "I know there was something! Give me back my gun!" 

Asano's by his side now, looking curious but not shaken. "She has very good instincts," he says, crossing his arms. "I am certain she cannot see me, but as a master assassin, she's more attuned in her surroundings than all of you are." He gives her an appreciative once-over. "She may act like an idiot, but her observation and intuition far surpasses all of yours, even Karasuma's."

"Let go of me!" Bitch-sensei shrieks. "I told you there was-"

"You're out of line!" Karasuma-sensei yells.

Bitch-sensei wrenches herself away from Karasuma-sensei, spitting and cursing. "Devil's child," she hisses, and Karma winces but Asano seems more intrigued than insulted. She growls a string of words in a foreign language and storms off.

"Your gun," Karasuma-sensei calls out.

In response, another gunshot fires from what seems to be another pistol, and everyone jumps. 

"Where did she get another," he starts, and then curses.

"Okay," Kataoka says slowly. "So that was bad." 

"That was a mean trick to play, Karma," Isogai says.

"I didn't do anything!" Karma crosses his arms. "She fired a bullet at nothing."

"I mean, the whole wind spirit thing-"

"It's not my fault that she's paranoid," Karma insists. "It was clearly a joke."

"Maybe she's just really religious?" Yada says uncertainly, "I know she's christian..."

"Still inappropriate," Karasuma-sensei sighs, rubbing the space between his eyebrows. "Akabane, let me know if she bothers you about it."

"Will do," Karma says.

In all honesty, he's a little worried about her. Bitch-sensei seemed really spooked by the prospect and Asano seemed incredibly curious about her. He keeps bugging Karma on what 3-E knows about her which Karma can't answer, not because he doesn't want to - well, he doesn't want to, but the main reason is that they're standing with his class.

"Wait," he asks later, when they've finally back in his assigned room as everybody freshens up to get the sand out of their hair. "Can you get shot?"

"Not when I'm incorporeal," Asano says. He flicks something behind his ear. The bond gives a funny twinge between them, and Karma tilts his head a little.

"You moved out of the way."

"It's a reflex," Asano says. Flicks his ear again. Another weird ping.

Karma squints. "Do you have demon fleas?"

"Demon what?!" Asano glares at him. Another flick. "No!"

"It better not be contagious," Karma says. 

"Demon fleas aren't a thing," Asano snarls, eyes glowing. 

Karma stares at him. Asano stares back, impassive. His pupils thin into slits, Karma narrows his eyes back, and then Asano flicks behind his ear so fast that Karma wouldn't have caught it if the bond didn't send yet again another irritated spark.

"I saw that!" He explodes, and lunges across the room. Asano hisses and hops up onto the bedside dresser, whose tabletop contents remain miraculously stable, and Karma vaults over the bed. "Come here! I can feel it, you know! Do you have something stuck behind your ear or something?"

Asano looks briefly panicked. "No!" He says, leaping out of the way as Karma tries to tackle him. He lands on the floor, pulling the assorted items on the dresser down with him.

There's a knock on the room door and it opens. Isogai looks in worriedly. "Karma? I heard you yelling, and some crashes."

"Uh," Karma says. "I was practicing my parkour."

"...practicing... your parkour."

"I didn't get this good all naturally, you know," Karma tells him rather unconvincingly, considering that he's splayed spread-eagle on the carpet, and upside down.

"...Okay," Isogai says, clearly doubtful. "Please don't break anything. We have to pay damages. Dinner’s soon, by the way, you can just head down to the restaurant when you're ready."

"Yes sir," Karma says. Isogai leaves, and when Karma turns back around, Asano is glaring at nothing in particular, and he flicks his ear again.

“Uh,” says Karma. 

“Go eat,” Asano says, distracted by his ear flicking and the wall across. 

“I’ll sneak you food,” Karma says. 

Asano doesn’t acknowledge it. What is up with his demon this time?

At dinner, nothing happens except things do, and the strange feeling returns tenfold. It’s starting to feel like a significant bother. He’s ready to confront Asano seriously about it now, even if Isogai was going to burst down the door again.

“Damn demon,” Karma says, when he gets back and sees Asano on the bed, still flicking his ear. “What’s up with you? The bond’s going haywire, I can feel it.”

“Mind your own business,” Asano says.

“I couldn’t eat dinner because of you,” Karma says. It’s an exaggeration but Asano actually looks a tad guilty. “Are you going to tell me what’s up? If you have a problem that you can’t fix, maybe I-”

“Allergies!” Asano snaps. He jumps off the bed and crosses his arms. 

“Allergies?” Honestly, not the answer Karma was expecting. Could demons even get allergies? Judging by Asano’s face, it was probably the human side of him. 

“What are you allergic to?”

“I don’t know,” Asano spits. He starts scratching the side of his arm, probably an unconscious motion, but Karma notices that he’s in long sleeves now. He grabs Asano’s arm and pulls them up before Asano has time to protest, and is greeted with what seems to be splotchy allergy rashes. Not too serious looking, thankfully, but Asano's been scratching at them.

Asano jumps back as if burnt, and retreats to the corner of the room. “Funny, right?” he hisses, wrapping his arms around himself. He looks almost… ashamed.

“You thought I was going to make fun of you for having allergies?” Karma says softly.

Asano doesn’t reply, but his gaze drops to the ground. Their bond tightens uncomfortably.

“Look, I,” Karma starts, pauses. That was just… sad, actually. Asano’s demon friends must be mean.

...Did Asano even have demon friends?

Sure, he had plenty of, Karma wouldn’t call them friends, but acquaintances as a human. But he always spent time in school and around Karma. One would think he would prefer to be demon-socializing during his school break, when there’s no opportunity to do so during human school terms. 

Half-demons were really rare, weren’t they. There was probably a reason Asano was the only one around... t hat must suck, Karma thinks, to feel such human ailments as a demon and probably being ostracized for it. That was depressing to think about. 

This is out of Karma’s area of expertise. It's not like he has many friends either.

“Come here, okay?” Karma says. Asano looks up, but he stays stubbornly at the end of the room. 

“This is a request,” Karma says.

Asano disappears, and materializes inches in front of Karma. “Sit on the bed,” Karma says, and he digs in one of his bags for some medicine. Asano stares at him with apprehension, but compiles silently. 

“Here,” Karma says. “I have some antihistamines. I don’t know if they’ll work for you, but it’s worth a shot.” He passes a tablet over to Asano, and a tube of rash cream.

Asano stares at the items in his hands silently.

Karma sighs. He doesn’t even want to tease Asano about not knowing how to take care of himself. He probably genuinely doesn't, not in some... limbo between human and demon where the ins and outs of whatever he experiences are completely unique to anyone else. “Come on,” he says, and extends Asano’s right arm. 

He runs much warmer than humans do, it’s quite a comfortable temperature. Karma starts rubbing the cream onto Asano's arm, his grip tight even when Asano weakly tries tugging his arm away. He goes lax, eventually, and lets Karma do whatever. 

Karma switches over to the other arm.  “Do you have rashes on your legs?” 

Asano shakes his head. 

“Eat the pill,” Karma says.

Asano pops it into his mouth and swallows it dry. 

“We’ll find out what you’re allergic tomorrow, okay?” Karma says. It must be something in Okaniwa, since Asano had spent plenty of time around 3-E and had no adverse effects thus far. At this, Asano stands up, and pulls his sleeves back down. 

“I’ll go back,” he says.

“See you,” Karma says.

Asano blinks at him again, then says ever so softly, “...thank you,” and disappears. The feeling that bursts through the bond then is embarrassment Karma can imagine Asano’s red face, but it’s warm and, dare Karma say, feels almost affectionate. 

The next morning, Asano’s there when Karma wakes up, seated at the foot of the bed and tapping on his phone. It would be kind of creepy but Karma’s getting used to it. “How are your arms?”

Asano flushes a little red, but holds them out obligingly. They’ve mostly cleared up but there are patches still slightly pink. 

“Take another pill,” Karma says. “We’re going around the island today to scope places out for assassination, you can come with and see if you react to anything. Have you eaten?”

The answer, thankfully, is yes, because Karma doesn’t know how he’d explain feeding thin air during the communal breakfast. Bitch-sensei continues steadfastly ignoring Karma - come to think of it, he hadn’t seen her yesterday at dinner - and leaves as soon as she’s done eating. 

Okaniwa is a beautiful place full of flora and fauna, much like the hill their classroom is built on, although it’s not particularly conducive for any assassination. 

“Maybe we should assassinate him near the beach,” Sugino says, “since Koro-sensei’s susceptible to water.” 

“He can just fly away,” Maehara points out, “we have to make sure he has no escape route.”

“Maybe we can find a water spirit to summon a wall of water!” Fuwa says excitedly.

“Oh stop with the spirits thing! Karma’s bad enough,” Nakamura says.

“A wall of water, though,” Nagisa thinks, “that might actually-”

“-Achoo!” 

Karma whips around. Nobody seems to have noticed any disembodied sneezing, continuing to chat animatedly. Asano looks equally as shocked from the noise that came out of him.

“What was-achoo! Achoo!”

Karma walks to his side. There’s a plant there that he hasn’t seen thus far, with white fluffy looking flowers that seem to be the cause of Asano’s-

“Achoo!”

“Karma?” Karma looks up. 3-E is staring at him. They’ve walked several paces ahead and are very confused why Karma has stopped in the middle of his tracks. Karma's confused too.

“This,” Karma says, holding up the flower, and next to him Asano sneezes again. “Is a very cool flower, don’t you think?”

Kurahashi stands on tip toes, her eyes widen, and she pushes her way forward. “Oh my god! Angel’s bloom! They’re native to the islands in this region, you know?”

Karma stares at the flower. “What are they called again?’

“Angel’s bloom!” Kurahashi says, clapping her hands. “They rarely flower, I’ve been keeping my eye out for it but I haven’t seen it yet. Don’t the petals look like fluffy angel wings?”

Wings, Karma thinks, are feathery and dark like the night. He only barely manages to not burst out laughing, because the idea of a demon being allergic to a flower literally named  _ Angel’s _ bloom? Hilarious.

Asano, on the other hand, is much less amused. He glares at the flower in Karma’s hands in betrayal, and sneezes again.

“Cool,” Karma says. 

“I didn’t know you were interested in flowers,” Kurahashi says. 

“Oh, I’m really not,” Karma says. Asano’s glaring at the plant like he wishes to set fire to it with his gaze. Karma’s pretty sure the only thing keeping him from doing as such are his classmates. “These ones just caught my eye.”

Behind him, Asano is cursing at the flowers, swear words peppered by little consecutive sneezes. Kinda cute.

  
  


_ Wait, what? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i completely made up the flower. Don't factcheck me.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm writing dorky, sleepy Asano. This is so ooc like you won't believe.

Asano kicks up a fuss and vehemently refuses to step foot on Okinawa until every single one of those flowers are eradicated. He burns one out of sight behind Karma’s back, starts coughing and choking at the fumes, and Karma douses him with his water bottle.

"What are you doing?!"

"Watering the plants," Karma says. It's kind of weird, because the water seems to... go through Asano. Huh. He supposes it adds to the whole normal-people-can't-see-him thing.

"That's soda," Nakamura says.

"So it seems," Karma agrees. Asano's turning a more human-half human-demon shade now. The flower is in ashes.

The class stares at him. Karma stares back.

Asano glares at the flower, then at Karma, and disappears.

Isogai sniffs the air. “Is something burning?”

Karma spends the rest of an Asano-free day scoping out the island and planning the assassination with the rest of his class. After dinner, they convene once more, and finally at 10pm Koro-sensei pops by to make sure they’re not over-exerting themselves with assassination planning, the class yells at him to leave, Yada agrees and calls for a dismissal, and the class disperses. Karma’s ready for a long shower and maybe to play some video games until he gets too tired to stay awake, but when he opens the door to his room, Asano is there. 

Asano is there, and he’s…

...asleep.

He’s curled up at the foot of the bed, covered in a large black blanket that Karma doesn’t remember packing, quietly dozing. Karma tries to close the door as softly as possible.

Nope. He’s awake now, when Karma turns back around, peeking out from under the blanket with one large violet eye. 

“You can go back to sleep,” Karma says, a little awkwardly. 

Asano shifts - oh, no, those were his wings, not a blanket, and stretches languidly. The wings extend, spanning most of the hotel room, and Karma gapes. 

Then Asano folds them over his back again just as quickly, feathers spilling over the sheets and floor like it’s a regal cape. Asano blinks sleepily. “Hi.”

“H-hi,” Karma says. 

Asano is. Cute.

This was the second time Karma thought that today. The evidence is laid out here, before him. Asano is cute. 

Logic, Karma thinks, isn’t quite as reassuring as he’d hoped it’d be.

“How are your allergies?” He asks.

Asano scowls at him. “Fine.”

Karma frowns. “Show me.”

Asano grumbles a little, but he rolls up his sleeves and presents his arms to Karma - still slightly patchy, but much better. 

“So what are you doing here?” Karma asks, then cringes. He didn’t mean to make it sound like Asano wasn’t welcome - he’d invited him, after all, just that Karma expected him to go home or do demon things and not back to… the hotel room. Was he here all this while, just napping? Coupled with Asano’s seeming lack of demon friends and… did he have human friends? Did the five virtuosos count? In all honesty, Asano didn’t seem close to them at all… was it the half-demon thing?

Was Karma his friend? He supposes so.... right? They hung out pretty often and all. And with Karma, Asano could be as half-demon as he wanted without having to force himself to pretend to be a normal person. Karma knew all about having to play pretend. 

“What?” Asano says, and Karma realizes he’d been silent for too long. 

“I’m glad I found that stupid book,” Karma blurts.

Asano’s eyes widen.

“I mean…” Karma wrings his hands together. How did other people do this again? 

“I’m glad we’re friends,” he finishes.

Karma’s greeted with the world’s most amazing sight. It should be classified as one of it’s wonders, a national heritage, immortalized for future generations to come. Karma would pull out his phone if he wasn’t sure of it’s fat - he doesn’t quite want to lose months of saved data of game to the demon dimension - but anyways, the view, the sights, the marvel. Asano blushes.

“Oh my god,” Karma says softly. 

Asano claps his hands over his reddening cheeks - Karma mourns the loss a little - and pulls a mirror out of thin air. Then makes a little drawn-out whine at his reflection.

“I didn’t know I could do that,” Asano murmurs.

“Blush?” Karma almost trips over his feet running to his side. “Is this your first time blushing?!”

Asano turns to stare at Karma. “I think so?” He says, a little hysterically. “My cheeks feel so hot…”

“Yeah,” Karma agrees. 

Asano turns redder, and lets out a little squeak. He whips out the mirror again. 

“My face turned redder…” 

Karma decides to test out a theory. “You’re very cute.”

Asano yelps, and his fingers jump from his face like they’re burnt. “My face is as red as your hair!” He squeaks. “Do humans also burn up when they-”

“We do,” Karma says, but then the demon-human-anatomy-differences bell rings in his head and Karma presses his hand to Asano’s face.

And then leaps up and drags Asano to the bathroom, pushes him into the tub, and then turns the showehead on and sprays it right at his face. “Not that hot! You’re literally boiling!’

The water starts sizzling. Does Karma smell smoke?

“I didn’t know that… oh my god… so humans burn up when they get embarrassed…” Asano mumbles to himself, looking shocked as Karma continues dousing him in sprays of icy water. 

He turns off the tap when Asano's turns back to a human color. He leans forward and touches his face - okay, slightly clammy, but no longer on literal fire. 

"That's not supposed to happen," Karma says.

"Uh huh," Asano says, lips blue.

"Oh great." Karma says, and hauls him out of the tub. 

"Change your clothes." He turns around and then back again to see Asano now in dry and warm fabric, and shivering. Karma throws a duvet over him and tackles him into the bed, and then rolls him up into a burrito.

Asano sneezes. 

"Don't demons have regular homeostasis?" Karma says. 

"I guess," Asano says. "I'm fine." Nope, he's still cold. Asano sneezes again. 

"You literally burn up when you blush," Karma says. "You're freezing!" 

"You're the one that doused me with icy water," Asano says petulantly, burrowing in the duvet despite complaints. 

"To stop you from catching on fire!" Karma says. "You were smoking, Asano."

"Thank you," Asano mumbles.

"Don't be smart with me." 

"Mhm."

"You better not get hypothermia," Karma warns.

"Like that's a thing I can control," Asano says. 

"Go to sleep," Karma says, exasperated. "But don't die."

He has a quick shower, takes sleepy-Asano's temperature (how much was too low for a half-human?) says "you're cute" to watch Asano turn pink, and takes his temperature again. "A ten degree difference," Karma observes, "it seems that compliments are fatal. What's your baseline temperature again?"

Asano tells him.

"Okay, a bit more heating up to do," Karma says. "Stay toasty." He settles in next to blanket-burrito-sano, and throws the comforter over him. "Don't burn anything. We have to pay damages."

Karma wakes up the next morning next to a furnace. Well, he wakes up next to Asano, who's now warm and a comfortable temperature and making for a great blanket warmer, so Karma goes back to sleep.

Knock, knock.

"No," Karma says, turning over.

"Karma!" Great, it's Nagisa. "Wake up or you'll miss breakfast!"

Next to him, Asano stirs. His head pops out of the duvet, bedhead and sleepy eyes and all. It's adorable. 

"Coming," Karma calls. He pats Asano on the head, changes his sleep-wrinkled shirt for a new one, says "see you later, Asano," then walks out the door and greets Nagisa.

Wait. What did he just do?

Rewind. Karma stretches, gets out of bed, puts his phone in his pocket and-

No, no. Karma stretches, leans over and  _ ruffles Asano's hair _ . 

Karma looks down at his left hand. It's still attached to his body. Huh.

“What’s wrong with your hand, Karma?” Nagisa looks concerned.

“Hm?” Karma says. “Nothing. Defied death today, after all.”

“Okay,” Nagisa says. “Well, we’re going to finalize assassination plans today! Do you think it’s going to work?”

“No,” Karma says. 

“A-ah? Why not? What’s wrong with the plan?”

Karma thinks. “It’s not the plan’s fault. We just simply aren’t on par with Koro-sensei’s skills and we can’t kill him.”

Nagisa is silent for a moment. “I don’t think you have enough faith in the class, Karma,” he says. 

“I don’t think faith has anything to do with it,” Karma says. With demons and angels in this world, who knows how many supernaturals there are out there, how many beings stronger and faster than Asano and his father? Just what were Koro-sensei’s limits? Despite what he says, he wouldn’t want to get killed by some children; there was no way he’d had these little tricks up his sleeve.

Karma doesn’t want to go into the details, but he’s right, on all accounts. Koro-sensei escapes death by a near breath of a hair by turning into a little indestructible ball, an ability previously unknown. Koro-sensei giggles in his stupid little ball and the class is torn up about their failure even as Karasuma-sensei tries to tell them that they have the rest of the school year to try. Karma knows what he said but he’s bummed out, too, especially with the class’s low spirits. He just wants to go back to the room and cuddle with Asano.

Ugh. If these Asnao-is-cute intrusive thoughts keep popping up, Karma was going to have to seek professional help. Yeah, the boy’s cute, Karma's not blind, whatever. Leave him alone, thoughts. Asano doesn’t even like to cuddle.

Does he?

Karma doesn’t get the answer to that question, nor does he get to ask it, because post-assassination attempt that day, his classmates start collapsing around them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FYI the reason that Asano's sleeping over ;) at Okinawa today is because he went home and shoved a flower in his dad's face, who was so intrigued by the idea of demon-allergies that he tried to do an experiment on it. (No, Asano-senior's not allergic, but he does find the concept very amusing). Asano-junior got tired of having to eat common allergens all day and he ran out the door the moment his dad turned his back. 
> 
> I was going to include it somewhere but I didn't have the chance to, thought you guys might like to know anyways ;)


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How is everyone doing?

**I haven't been giving my chapters titles but I don't know what to put omg**   


A familiar weight settles on his shoulder, and a voice curls in his ear. "It's not poison." 

It's only practice that Karma doesn't startle. The class is too frantic, they pay him no mind, so he drops his voice says, "what?"

"It's not poison," Asano says, again. He walks around Karma to stand next to Nakamura. "It's just a cold virus." He waves a hand over her face and murmurs a little string of words Karma cannot hear, and when he does she looks just a fraction better, color seeping back into her skin. 

Karma purses his lips. "Guys," he calls out, "it's not poison."

Karasuma-sensei regards him warily. "How do you know?"

"Symptoms," Karma says like it's obvious, even though it's total bullshit. "Fever, cough, aches and nausea, it's just a cold virus. A quick acting one, but a virus nonetheless. We all took the drinks, but only some of us with the weaker immune systems fell ill. If it were a poison, all of us would be affected."

"He might be right," Okuda says softly. She's squatting by Nakamura now, dabbing a cool cloth on her forehead. "She's looking better already." Asano has moved to Okajima and was whispering little incantations that has him coughing out phlegm and turning a shade more human.

"Still," Isogai says, "there's someone out there with intent to harm us."

Karma looks at Asano, who narrows his eyes consideringly, and nods once. Karma has seen his wings a few times but when they unfurl from his back - and there was a difference, between the blanket Asano used it as and the arc he stretches before he flies, wide and dipped in darkness. Karma stares. 

"Hey," Nagisa says, catching his attention. "You okay?"

"Just thinking," Karma says. Asano is gone now. Nagisa crosses his arms.

They make the decision to move quickly, to find out who their assailant is and get the "antidote", just in case. 

Karma is climbing up the cliff face, almost near the top, when Asano appears behind him. He almost loses his grip on the handhold in shock but Asano picks him up and throws him over the edge. To anyone else, it would look as if Karma decided to swing himself up over the wall.

"What the hell, man," Karma hisses.

"It's Akira Takaota," Asano says, eyes glowing crimson. 

"Like our old PE teacher?" 

"Yes," Asano says, eyes glowing a little red. "I'll kill him for free, if you'd like." 

Karma decides to talk to Nagisa, who stays silent at first and then divulges details of how exactly Takaota had treated them during Karma's absence, and at the end Karma feels a little sick. He knows what he said, but he should have been there. He's glad that that asshole got stared down by a demon, especially one as cold as Gakuhou Asano. it's a fitting punishment. 

"Why do you ask?" Nagisa says.

"I think he might be our attacker," Karma tells him.

Nagisa's gaze turns sharp and assessing. "You barely attended his classes," he says. Damn Nagisa for being so perceptive, and there's no explanation Karma can offer. He just shrugs.

"Okay, " Nagisa thinks. "We'll let Karasuma-sensei know."

Karma watches as he and Karasuma-sensei exchange quick, clipped words. Karasuma-sensei stares suspiciously at him. Karma knows his whole comment about the poison or lack thereof, and the fact that he shouldn't know who their attacker is, is incredibly shifty. He should lay lower from now.

"So I do nothing," Asano says.

"I'm looking very suspicious right now," Karma murmurs to him, "be more subtle on the demon magic."

"I'm just telling you what I know," Asano scowls at him. "You don't have to go blurting it out to the world." But he falls in step next to Karma and surveys the surroundings with a disinterest that tells Karma that Asano must have already scoured the entire place.

Bitch-sensei, despite her flippant childishness and her adamant avoidance of Karma, is good at her job. Asano's eyes glow, watching her, his interest is starting to get a little worrying but there's no way to ask him about it now. They carry on down the hallways until, rushing forward, Terasaka and Muramatsu get attacked by an assassin wielding some sort of gas. Karasuma-sensei pulls them back at the last minute and goes down hard. 

"Now that," Asano says, "is poison." Karasuma-sensei is coughing his lungs out, and his legs give him under him. Karma stares helplessly. "Can you do anything?"

"Yes," Asano says. He blinks, long and slow. His pupils briefly turn to slits, and they're normal when he blinks again. "Do you want me to?"

Shit. This aligned poorly with his plan to stay inconspicuous, but Karasuma-sensei was their strongest, and without Bitch-sensei, their team was vulnerable. "Not yet," Karma whispers, "but keep the rest of us out of trouble? Subtly."

"I don't care about your class," Asano scoffs. It's not a no. Karma doesn't think it's the right time to call Asano out on his secret fondness for 3-E just yet. He quickly catches up to Nagisa.

Further ahead, because life was a cliche and this was a dungeon run, they encounter another assassin going by the alias of Grip. What a stupid name. 

Asano goes up to him, staring curiously at Grip's face from 3 inches away as Grip taunts 3-E. Karma giggles.

Grip pauses mid-rant in indignation. "What's so funny?!"

Asano holds up a peace sign behind Grip's head to give him bunny ears with a deadpan look on his face. Dammit. "The fact you think you stand a chance," Karma drawls.

Asano snickers. 

Karma may not be a demon or a half-demon, but he can still hold his own, thank you very much, and he's just as devious as one. He pretends to go down when Grip sprays him with the incapacitating smoke but retaliates with the canister he'd "borrowed" from their previous assailant. 

Like he'd go down that easily. 

"Huh," Asano says, squatting down next to Karma as he sticks wasabi sticks up Grip's nose. "One more lackey to go."

"Who's the last- hey where the fuck did you get that?" Karma hisses.

Asano slowly sips on his iced coffee. "Starbucks."

"I know that," Karma says. The logo was fucking huge. "there's a Starbucks on this island?!"

"No, I went back to the mainland," Asano says. Takes another obnoxious sip. "Let's go." 

Karma scowls at his back, but he gives Grip another patronizing pat on the head and stands up to follow his class ahead. 

They reach yet another obstacle, a bar area full of intoxicated upper socialites that would have been Bitch-sensei’s forte, which they have to get past to move forward. Ritsu figures out an alternative which unfortunately also involves passing through the bar, to open a side door to allow the class to get through. 

The boys, they reason, would attract too much attention. 

“Are you sure the girls can go in alone?” Isogai says with worry, “what if something happens?”

“Nothing will happen,” Karma says. There's a half-demon escorting them. He doesn't say that, of course.

“We don’t know what kind of people are in there,” Maehara says.

Karma looks at Asano, who shrugs. He’s holding a glass of wine now, that bastard.

“That’s okay, Nagisa can go with them,” Karma says. 

“Wait, what?” Nagisa says.

After dressing a very reluctant Nagisa up - Nakamura would be sad she missed this, Karma thinks, the group of girls go on their way. Asano stretches and follows, humming as he swings the door shut behind him.

There’s a pause, then the boys begin chatting lowly. Karma lets his mind drift, half-paying attention to the conversation around him, when the connection with Asano sparks. Karma jerks upward.

The attention is drawn to him now. “What’s wrong?” Isogai asks. 

“No, I got a weird feeling about the girls,” Karma says.

“You think something happened?” 

“Nothing bad,” Karma says, because Asano is feeling… amused. “We can ask them about it later.”

“Huh,” Terasaka eyes him suspiciously. “You sure are acting real weird as of late-”

The door swings open. Yada’s grinning face greets them. “You’ll never guess what happened!”

Turns out, Nagisa is a real cutie. Who knew?

He means, Karma knows Nagisa is a cutie. He’s sure everyone in 3-E knows Nagisa is a cutie, he’s small and adorable and he has an oddly feminine figure. He’s pretty sure Nakamura and Kayano both have crushes on him. Karma thinks he might, too, except that Nagisa’s bloodlust unnerves him - or well it used to, at the very least, but nothing quite compares to knowing an actual living  _ demon _ .

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about that, I skimmed a little bit through Okinawa's events. It's a really exciting saga and I could spend AGES on it but then this fic would be way too long. It's already way too long, what was I thinking?


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are you ready for an unnecessarily long-ass chapter in which nothing and everything happens?

The last assailant before Takaoka, if Asano was to be believed (and yes, Karma thinks that he's began to trust the demon) waited for them in a large theatre. He went by the name…

...Gastro.

What a stupid ass name. What's with everyone's weird names?

Karma pokes his head in between the seats as Gastro taunted the class. Next to him, cross-legged, Asano picks at a stray thread on Gastro's pant leg and sips at his iced coffee. He turns around and throws Karma another flat-expressionless peace sign.

Karma sighs. At least he knows none of them will actually be shot. 

Since when did Asano use peace-signs? Who has he been hanging out with?

They shuffle positions, fire shots, and eventually make quick work of Gastro, leaving him tied up against a banister. Asano stretches, the thread victorious in his fingers, and he flicks it aside. "Final boss, Akari Takaoka."

Nagisa slides back beside Karma. "Are you sure Takaoka's behind all this?"

"Yes," Karma says. "He should have a vendetta against you, Nagisa. You better be careful."

The class reaches the top floor, and Karma already knows who their opponent is, but it doesn’t stop the feeling of dread of meeting Akari Takaoka, a man who’s so cold and heartless he would murder innocent children just to kill Koro-sensei.

No, not even for Koro-sensei. Just to get back at Nagisa. 

Karma knows that his classmates aren’t afflicted with real poison, it’s just a cold virus, but he still screams with Takaoka tosses the briefcase with the antidote into the air, and fires his gun. The bullet pierces through the case and it shatters with a loud bang-

-no, no it doesn’t.

It swings wide arc into the air, the bullet misses the case by just a hair of a millimeter, what seems to be a hurricane erupt in the middle of the platform and the case tumbles it's way down to a soft landing.

The wind seemingly flips the case open, revealing the two rows of vials. 

Nobody else sees Asano poke at a vial. "It's just water," he says.

Karma deflates. "Thank god."

Almost immediately, half the class is on him. "Was that the wind spirit?" Fuwa screams. 

Karma shrugs her off. The fight is still going on.

Takaoka looks shocked, then furious, and then he raises his gun and shoots Nagisa point blank-

-and Asano snatches the bullet out of the air as soon as it leaves the muzzle.

The class watches with bated breath as Nagisa takes Takaoka down with two swift hits of his rubber knife and his taser baton.

The three professional hitmen - Smog, Grip, Gastro, reconvene with, remarkably, Bitch-sensei. “It’s not a real poison,” Smog says, waving a hand, “man, Takaoka was crazy. You kids are just middle-schoolers!”

“We just gave you a cold virus,” Gastro says.

“Yeah,” Nagisa says. “We know.” The class stares at Karma.

Bitch-sensei stares harder. 

Koro-sensei goes back to normal, of course, and Asano laughs at Karasuma’s plan to subdue him. “What’s truly surprising is,” Asano says, “despite it all, Koro-sensei is still a living creature, after all, and with his little state like this,” he pokes the little ball, “48 hours of food and water deprivation would do nothing to kill him but air, on the other hand.”

Koro-sensei does more idiotic things, determined to have what he deems as a proper holiday before they leave the island, and sets up a matchmaking “test of courage” to allow his fanfiction-shipped pairs to enter a horror maze.

Karma laughs at the absurdity of it, gets paired up with Okuda, and snickers as his classmates leave the cave increasingly unimpressed.

“Hey, Karma,” Okuda says, “how are things going with the guy you had to apologize to?”

“Okay,” Karma says.”He accepted my apology.”

“That’s great,” she says. “Can I ask you a question, Karma? Feel free to ignore me if you feel uncomfortable.”

Karma thinks it’s about Asano. “Sure,” he says.

“Do you really have a wind spirit?”

Bingo. “Nope,” Karma says, watching as her face goes from worried to contemplative. 

“The wind managing to slow down the fall of the antidote was very weird,” she says, “I’ve never seen a strong gale of wind appear just like that… Ritsu managed to get the security tapes from the rooftop and played it for us. Nakamura doesn't believe it.” 

‘You think I had something to do with it?” Karma asks. 

“Well…” Okuda shifts. “It is very strange,” she admits, “but there’s no explanation for it. Fuwa says it doesn’t seem like it would be a wind spirit because elemental spirits are attached to locations, not people, so one following us here…”

Karma nods awkwardly. He almost wishes Asano were here - he’d scoffed at the idea of a matchmaking session and decided to do something worth his time, whatever that was, but what could Asano even do if he were present? Shrug at Karma and drink starbucks with a patronizing look on his face? They leave the “test of courage” rather quickly and gather back with the rest of the class, laughing about Koro-sensei’s attempts at scaring them.

Karma’s Okinawa trip concludes with Asano crushing an Angel’s Bloom underneath his heel, laughing maniacally, and then coughing his lungs out. Karma has no sympathy for repeat offenders. 

Their next semester in Kunugigaoka begins fantastically, Karma thinks. Takebayashi leaves 3-E for 3-A, leaves 3-A for 3-E, and then Karma gets a mini heart-attack by proxy when Asano describes the scene of Takebayashi breaking a vase in the principal’s office. 

“Is he insane?!” Karma says.

“Yep,” Asano says. 

“Is who insane?” Nakamura says, hopping out of her seat at the ready for gossip. Shit, did Karma say that out loud? Right, it was 3-E’s lunch break.

“Asano,” Karma says immediately. “Hey, Takebayashi, you spent a few days in 3-A. Is Asano psycho?”

Karma knows that the answer is a definite yes, of course, Asano isn’t just psycho, he’s a literal demon.

“Asano is very cool,” Takebayashi says. Wait what?

“Asano like, the principal’s son Asano?” Terasaka says. “That guy’s an asshole.”

“He is misunderstood,” Takebayashi insists.

“How so?” Karma says.

Takebayashi doesn't answer. Asano snickers. Karma rolls his eyes - what an egotistical demon. So Takebayashi had a little boy crush on him, who knew? 

Asano? Misunderstood? No one here could even begin to comprehend who Asano was - not that it was their fault, they simply can’t conceive of the possibilities, misunderstood doesn’t even begin to cover it. Even Karma himself, he begrudgingly admits, doesn’t understand Asano and his little nuances, his “backstory” per say, the secrets he keeps and why he’s the only half demon around. There were so many things to him, he was just so… interesting. 

He’ll unravel Asano’s mind, a little bit at a time. 

For now, all Karma knows - or, well, assumes, is that Asano has a strained relationship with the demon society as a half-demon, he’s allergic to a specific type of flower, and he eats.

But Asano disappearances - aside from his schooling hours - have become increasingly frequent, even more so than prior to the Okinawa trip, and Karma itches to ask him about it, but he refrains from doing so. He doesn’t want to push him too far again. 

Karma doesn’t have any more time to dwell about it. Very soon after, Itona and Shiro launch their next attack - a psychological trick, framing Koro-sensei for perverted acts and turning his students against him, which Karma might have actually believed if not for Asano laughing his ass off at the spectacle. The true culprits are discovered and Itona once again battles Koro-sensei, and loses. Karma knows marginally more about them now, he feels a little bad for Itona.

And then Shiro abandons him there, having failed at assassinating Koro-sensei one too many times, Itona goes berserk and runs off and Koro-sensei says the tentacles are endangering his life and they need to find him _ now _\- 

-and Asano is nowhere to be found.

Koro-sensei takes to the air and the lot of them run down the streets, looking down alleyways and dark corners by they find Itona sitting in plain sight. They find both of them, actually, at a park bench downtown, and Itona has his head bowed and Asano is running his hands through his hair, but nobody else sees that, of course, not Nagisa or Isogai or Terasaka or Koro-sensei. 

Asano doesn't look at him. "Remember what we talked about?" Asano says softly, and Karma realizes he's talking to Itona. Asano is _ talking to Itona. _

Itona bites his lip. Karma digs his nails into his palm.

How, why?-

"Let them help you," Asano says, his voice impossibly gentle, ruffling Itona's hair like the wind would, and Koro-sensei plucks the shriveled blackened tentacles off the top of Itona's head and Terasaka talks to him and then Itona turns around and stares directly at Asano with large, glittering eyes-

No, no, he's just gazing at the park bench. He doesn't register a person sitting there, so can he see Asano or not?

Asano is next to him now, Itona's still looking at the bench. 

"He has never seen me," Asano says.

Karma grits his teeth. He doesn't… he doesn't understand. How did Asano get so much information on Itona? This was not their first meeting, but then what was Asano to Itona? 

Did Asano - Karma's stomach churns at the thought - did he have another contract? 

Karma knows what he said, Asano can do whatever he fucking wants to do, Karma's not his keeper. Why does he feel so betrayed?

He wants to… he wants to shake Itona down and interrogate him, the poor kid looks so frazzled and Asano is staring at him with an unreadable look in his eyes- what exactly was their relationship? Is this… is this why Asano was always gone? He was spending time with Itona, his other contractee? 

Asano… Asano had asked him if he could take multiple contracts, Karma hadn't said no. Why would he? It's not like Asano was…

...solely his...

"I have to go," Karma strains a smile, interrupting the reunion and Itona's integration into 3-E. "I remembered I have something on."

Nagisa smiles at him, not buying a single word. "Thank you for helping us today, Karma," he says, and Karma nods a goodbye at him.

Karma stalks off, hands in his pockets, and Asano keeps pace next to him but Karma, for once Karma just wants him to _ leave _.

"I don't," Karma hisses, once they're out of earshot from the boys, "I don't understand. You two-"

"He has never seen me," Asano tells him, "he doesn't know I'm a demon."

"What?!" Karma says. "Does he think you're some fucking wind spirit or something?"

Asano frowns. "He thinks I'm his guardian angel."

"_ You _?" An angel? Karma scoffs in disbelief. Asano doesn't reply. 

They walk for a while in silence, the bond twisting uncomfortably between them. 

"Why?" Karma finally asks.

"I chose the easiest route to get information," Asano says simply, "I asked him. He's vulnerable and desperate, he'd want to believe that there's someone helping him."

"But you've been spending time with him," Karma says. "All those times you didn't answer my calls."

Asano's gaze flicks to him. "You didn't require my assistance."

"But Itona did?"

Asano closes his eyes and sighs. "Empathy is a disgusting human emotion."

Empathy. Asano empathized with Itona, a boy who had his world collapse from under his feet and fought for power to rebuild it. What does that mean?

"Are you in a contract with other people?" Karma says. Why is he making such a big deal out of this? Karma said he could do whatever he wanted. 

Asano frowns. "No," he says softly. All Karma can think of is watching Asano stroke Itona's hair, speaking in the same quiet voice.

"I," Karma starts, _ don't want you to be with anyone else _, then swallows hard. That was… wrong. Selfish. Asano wasn't…

...his...

All of a sudden Asano is in front of him, halting Karma in his tracks. They're uncomfortably close and Karma feels the heat radiating off him.

"You," Asano says, an inhuman tenor in his tone that sends shivers down Karma's spine. "Are the only human who knows who I am."

“Don’t form a contract with anybody else,” Karma says, gulps. “That’s not a demon request. It’s me, asking you, as a...”

Asano stares at him.

“...friend,” Karma says.

Asano searches his face, eyes glowing softly red. Then he inclines his head, blinks long and slow, and then says, “okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's canon that Takebayashi has a weird crush on Asano by the way. That's not what they say but check out his wiki, you'll know what I mean. ;)
> 
> Also I realize I'm glossing over a lot of the details and the canon plot. I want to give the class the character development they deserve and I want to stay somewhat true to canon as for the way things develop but the class isn't the main point of this story. And I'm referring to the assclass wiki a lot HAHA my idea of the plot and sequencing of events is warped. I didn't even know Itona joined the class this late! I swore it happened way earlier. Do let me know if things are confusing, I'll try to slow it down a little.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god it's been so long since I updated. It's been like, a week. 
> 
> It's okay, here's a long chapter to make up for it. 
> 
> Presenting to you: the Worst Chapter.

Isogai has a part time job. It’s not something Karma knows about at first, he doesn’t quite care enough to find out about something so mundane about his classmates. Asano knows, well, Asano seems to know everything these days. If Karma didn’t know better, he’d think the boy was a gossip.

“It’s against the school rules,” Asano says.

“Why?” Karma asks.

Asano shrugs.

“That’s weird,” Karma says, wrinkling his nose. “Why did you challenge Isogai to Bo-taoshi again and threaten his job? Don’t cite school rules at me, I know you don’t give a fuck about that. Why are you so mean?”

Bo-taoshi: a traditional japanese game of pole-toppling, to be played against 3-A at the sport’s festival.

“Oh?” Asano says peacefully. “Am I not the perfect antagonist? Shooting challenge after challenge at your worthless classmates to motivate you all to improve your skills and self-esteem for each obstacle you overcome?”

Karma scowls. “You don’t have to be such a bitch about it.”

Asano laughs at him. “Like  _ you _ can say anything about that.”

Karma sighs. Whatever, this bo-taoshi match wouldn’t hurt them. “3-A is full of weak-ass nerds. How are you expecting to beat us?”

Asano shrugs. “I don’t need anyone else to defend the pole. It’s not like me showing a bit of supernatural strength would cause any trouble.”

That was fair. Asano was already seen as being stupidly athletic anyways. “How’s Itona?” Karma says instead. 

“He likes 3-E,” Asano says. “He thinks you’re funny.”

“Does he,” Karma says. He’s gotten over his bout of irrational jealousy, or so he tells himself. Karma was the  _ only person _ who knows about Asano. Take that, Itona. 

Asano looks at him, mirth in his eyes. “Are you still jealous?”

“I was never jealous,” Karma fumes. He was  _ not _ . “I was just… confused.”

“Uh huh,” Asano says, leaning forward. He rests his cheek on his palm. “So you won’t mind if I spend lunch with him today?”

“Suit yourself,” Karma challenges, “he doesn’t know you exist.”

Karma regrets ever saying those words because for lunch that day, he watches Asano and Itona sit together outside of class, Asano gently flapping his wings and occasionally leaning forward to ruffle Itona’s hair. A few of their classmates have joined them outside too, on account of the “nice breeze”, and Karma stabs his chopsticks into his bento.

“Do you not like Itona or something?” Nagisa asks him, as they look out the classroom window. Karma watches Asano send a heavy gust of wind at the trees, and their classmates shriek and attempt to save their lunches as an onslaught of leaves rained down on them. 

“No,” Karma says.

“Uh huh,” Nagisa says. “How’s the wind spirit?”

“I don’t have a wind spirit,” Karma says.

“Look me in the eye and tell me a wind spirit didn’t save the antidote when I was against Takaoka.”

“Fine, it’s something supernatural,” Karma says, “I wish I could explain it to you, Nagisa, and maybe someday I can, but not right now.”

Nagisa sighs. “I trust you, Karma.”

Karma buries his hands in his pockets. He’s looking too suspicious in front of the class now, and he’s sure Bitch-sensei is going to glare a hole into the back of his head or maybe blow his brains out one of these days.

Luckily, with Bo-taoshi and the stakes of Isogai’s job looming over them, 3-E don’t bother Karma about it. They train, they work, and finally the day arrives: the Kunugigaoka Middle School sports festival. 

Karma’s standing on one end of the field with his classmates. Asano is on the other, chatting amicably with his own team, a bunch of scrawny 3-A runts that don’t look like they’ll put up much of a fight, but Karma knows that Asano won’t need anyone else. 

It goes the way Karma predicts it to. 3-A fail remarkably at attempting to topple 3-E’s Bo-taoshi pole, but 3-E fails remarkably at vice versa - Asano keeps just barely out of everyone’s reach with his unfair supernatural edge. Isogai is losing his cool, Karma can see, he doesn’t have a solution, but Karma’s job isn’t to provide one for him. What had Asano said? The perfect antagonist for character development?

Asano smirks at him. Karma sticks his tongue out. 

Bitch, Karma mouths. 

In retaliation, Asano shoves his foot in Karma’s face-

“-Now!” Isogai yells.

Itona leaps into the air and slams against the Bo-taoshi pole, sending Asano toppling over. The shocked look on Asano’s face is something Karma would treasure forever.

“Eat ass, demon!” Karma cheers. Wait, shit.

“That’s not nice, Karma,” Isogai says, but he’s grinning in exhilaration. 

“We won?!” Kataoka gasps.

“Heck yeah we won!” Maehara says. 

“Good game?” Isogai is saying to Asano, who narrows his eyes and brushes him off. Someone calls him a sore-loser, Takebayashi refutes it, and Karma calls him a sore loser much later, and Asano rolls his eyes.

“Maybe your class isn’t entirely useless,” Asano mutters. 

“Stop being a sore loser,” Karma teases. 

“I’m not,” Asano says, and the bond stirs oddly between them. “I’m just…”

Karma softens. “We both know you won’t actually lose when it really comes down to it. What’s bothering you so much?”

Asano sighs. “Itona.”

Karma cocks his head. “What’s wrong with him?”

“Nothing, just… I didn’t notice it.”   
“Like him coming down from above? That was the plan, Isogai is a really good strategist.”

Asano looks irritated. “Yeah,” he says, and stands up.

“Wait, no, get back here,” Karma says, and pulls him back onto his bed. Asano sits back down with a huff, and crosses his arms. “What exactly is bothering you?”

“I didn’t notice it,” Asano says. “You lot are pathetic human beings, I should have been able to keep track of the entire situation but my surprise was… genuine.”

“There were twenty-six of us and one of you,” Karma says. “You’re a demon but you have your limits.” Was Asano being insecure about his demon powers? Karma doesn’t know if there’s any underlying trauma, he hadn’t gotten that far in unlocking Asano’s backstory yet. “I mean, you’re plenty fast and strong but you’re allergic to-”

“I’m not supposed to be allergic to anything!” Asano yells. He slams his hands down on the bedframe, rattling the bed. “I’m not supposed to be… I’m…”

The wood groans in protest. Asano retracts his hands quickly and folds them over his chest. 

Karma frowns. “Asano?”   
“Nothing,” Asano shakes his head. “It’s nothing.”

“No, it’s not,” Karma says. “We’re friends, aren’t we?” 

Asano’s eyes flash red. “Don’t push your luck,” he growls.

“Stop being all demony,” Karma says. “You’re making me feel like I have to throw up.” He doesn’t want to push too far but he wants answers, and Asano’s distress is unpalatable. Literally unpalatable, it’s leaving a bitter taste on Karma’s tongue. “You don’t have to tell me what’s going on if you don’t want to,” Karma says, “but you should.”

Asano’s eyes snap towards him, thin-slitted. 

“Not saying that because I’m nosy,” Karma says. “Human lesson number, I don’t know, seven or something. Bottling feelings up inside sucks. I may not be a therapist but I know a little bit about how regular humans deal with emotions.”

Asano groans. He walks to the window, wringing his hands, and then he sits down hard on the windowsill. Karma waits. 

Asano glares at him. Karma stares back.

“I have all these fucking problems wrong with me because I’m not supposed to exist,” Asano snaps. He stands up and drags his hands down his face, and paces the length of Karma’s bedroom. “Ugh. I didn’t want to tell you that, but honestly, it should be really obvious by now.”

Karma stays silent.

“You wonder why both of us are here on the human world amongst you?”

“Yeah,” Karma says softly.

“There are a lot of demons interested in humans. Emotions, relationships, society,” he waves a hand around, “very interesting to observe and experiment on. That’s why my father first came to the human dimension.”

“To observe us?”

“Yes. Demons live so much longer than humans that human lifespans can go in a,” he snaps his fingers. “Kunugigaoka is one of his personal pet projects. Plenty of demons do this, research is interesting and gets quite a lot of traction in their dimension.”

“So we’re just experimental subjects to him,” Karma says. Oddly enough, he’s not as bothered as he thought he would be. The Principal isn’t human, which made Karma put things into perspective. Like humans and lab rats, he supposes, not the best for the rats but ethical in the eyes of the scientists.

“Yes, and most recently, Koro-sensei,” Asano says. “I wouldn’t take what he does to heart. Demons aren’t government by the same principles that humans are.”

“Then what about you?” Karma asks. “Why are you here?”

Asano closes his eyes and sighs. “Why do you think?”

“...Research?” Karma says, but he knows the answer is wrong before he says it.

Asano lets out a bark of laughter. “In a way,” he says. “I’m the only half-demon around, do you know why that is?’

Karma shakes his head. The bond flutters restlessly between them, and he drags Asano back to the bed because he feels a little faint and he’s not sure if that’s entirely himself. Asano, Karma realizes, is shaking a little. His heart drops. 

“There’s been many halflings throughout history,” Asano says, blowing a puff of air and sending a bit of his fringe flying. “Born out of sin and despair of human will, but they’re cast out by human societies and are forced to live among their demon counterparts, except that they’re not exactly well received there, either.” 

Asano laughs again, bitterly, and Karma shivers. “Most halflings documented either go insane and subsequently suicide, or are culled by the community. None have lived past the human age of ten, really, so I’m quite the anomaly. Everything I do is of intellectual interest to demon academia.”

Karma sucks in a deep breath. What-

"Half demons are… weak,” Asano says, grinding his teeth. “Useless, impure, both spiritually and scientifically.” He gestures at nothing. “You know all the genetic impairments that come with the cross-breeding of two different species? Same concept. I’m a fucking scientific experiment,” Asano laughs again. “Just like dear old Koro-sensei. Yay!”

“Asano…” Karma says, “you’re not…”

“Yes, I am. my father was interested in the effects of raising a halfling amongst human society. So he got a child.”

Karma’s eyes widen. “Asano…”

“D-don’t say a fucking thing,” Asano says. He tilts his head towards Karma’s ceiling and shuts his eyes. 

Karma winces. He presses his hand over his chest.

Asano’s bites his bottom lip.

There are so many conflicting emotions in Karma now, he doesn’t know if it’s all his thoughts or if some of those are Asano’s, but he doesn’t quite have a demon’s willpower or stubbornness and tears are spilling from his eyes before he knows them. 

He feels hurt and shame, and he thinks that Asano must feel ashamed about who he is, horrible about the rejection he has from his own kind because of a choice he didn’t make. Karma was right, Asano didn’t have any demon friends, and he didn’t have any human ones either, did he? 

Asano looks at him in mild alarm, Karma rubs his eyes with the back of his hand, and he breaks the silence anyways. 

“That’s horrible,” Karma blurts, “shut up, I have to say it, it’s horrible, your father doesn’t even know what to - he doesn’t know - you’re fucked up, Asano, you didn’t know what blushing was or that you had allergies or what to do when… he treats you like your invincible like a demon but you’re not, there’s a part of you that’s human and he doesn’t know how to handle it and you’re fucked up.”

Asano’s lip quivers. “D-demons aren’t invincible-”

“Did that sound like it was my main point?!” Karma says. He grabs Asano’s hand, who doesn’t pull away. “Demons don’t love but you do, and it hurts so much when your father can’t love you back. You don’t have to deny it, I feel it, I feel,” Karma presses a hand to his stomach. “This thing, between us, I think it’s here because there’s a connection you need to make that you were never able to.”

“I don’t need you to pity me,” Asano hisses, pulling away, “I-”

“It’s not pity!” Karma yells. “I’m bursting the waterworks for you and you think I’m just pitying you? I love you, you fucking demonic idiot!”

Asano’s eyes widen. “Karma…”

“If this feeling isn’t fucking love,” Karma says, and he grabs Asano’s hand and presses it against his chest, where his heart is fluttering and aching for Asano and he just  _ knows _ he can feel it, “then I don’t know what it is.”

Asano’s looking at Karma with large glittering eyes, a splotchy face must be burning, and Karma just wishes he could have seen it sooner. 

“I felt you, for so long,” Karma whispers, “you just needed someone, didn’t you? You defied human-demon laws as we know it and made this strange, ridiculous connection between us,” Karma tightens his hand on Asano’s wrist. “You know, I asked myself if you had any demon friends, or human friends, or anybody, really,” he says. “I just didn’t know why I didn’t see it sooner. You told me straight up in the beginning, demons don’t love, but you do. That must have been awful.”

“I…” Asano murmurs, “You’re making me sound so… pathetic…”

“Well you are,” Karma says. “You  _ are _ a loser. You’re a half-demon that’s not supposed to exist but I love you anyways.” 

“I’m awful,” Asano wails, “I’m a hybrid monster. I’m not fully human or demon, I’ll never be. My wings are stunted and I’ll never get horns and I’m dyslexic!”

“Who cares about all of those?” Karma insists. “Your wings are fucking fine the way they are, I couldn’t even tell. They’re gorgeous and I can’t take my eyes off them. What the hell do you need horns for? Aesthetic?” He pats Asano on the head. “You’ll look stupid with them. Your genetics is doing you a favor.” He pauses. “You’re dyslexic?”

Asano sniffs. “Yeah. I need magic to read.”

“Well you’re doing really great anyways,” Karma says. “See, it works out, right? You’ve got the little bit of the parts you need to work out and you’re you.”

“I don’t… need…”

“Oh, hush,” Karma says. When he pulls Asano in, he’s met with no resistance, Asano just falls into his arms and Karma wraps around him. They sink into the bed.

Asano is shaking even more now, and he buries his face into Karma’s chest. Karma doesn’t let him go even though he’s uncomfortably warmer, just holds him through the emotions that must be wracking his body, strokes his hair and presses his lips to his forehead. It’s barely a bit later that Asano starts crying too. 

A pair of idiots, Karma thinks, sobbing in bed over feelings.

“Come here,” Karma murmurs. Asano’s black wings burst from his back and wrap around them both, trapping Karma in the warmest hug he’s ever had.

They lie in silence for a bit, softly crying to each other.

“You feeling okay?” Karma asks.

“Do you really love me?” Asano asks shakily.

“Sure I do,” Karma says, and pecks him on the forehead again.

“What does t-that mean?”

“It means,” Karma says, “that I care about you, and I want to spend time with you, and I want to make sure you’re okay.”

Asano sniffs. “T-thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Karma says. He rolls over onto his back, putting Asano on top of him. The wings fold lazily around them.

Their bond makes a happy, bubbling emotion between them. “...love you too,” Asano whispers, and Karma grins so wide he thinks his face would split open. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg you guys I'm screaming and crying over this
> 
> Okay, I didn't cry. I have a HEART OF STONE. Also this didn't turn out quite as emotional as I hoped it would (sighs) but oh wells, if I didn't post it I never will. That's my motto, by the way. To anyone who wants to write: if you wrote it but you think it sucks, well you wrote it so just share it anyways! It's your baby! Otherwise you'll just keep dwelling over what you wrote and you won't move on to create something new. I cringe when I read my old stuff. Ugh. 
> 
> I ALSO WANT TO CLARIFY SOMETHING that they did say they love each other but we're not there yet!! No!! If you read it and thought "wow that doesn't sound like a romantic confession" you're right, it's not. I want them to make out just as the next person but you know when you're writing and even though you wish the plot to go one way your heart and the characters you tried to develop just aren't ready for it yet? This is still a ship fic but now I feel that Gakushuu needs a friend more than a boyfriend. 
> 
> Also if you've read my two most recent fics you'd know there's an assclass rarepair week going on on tumblr right now! You should totally join in the fun [here](https://handy-dandy-headcanons.tumblr.com/post/187052555016/rules-the-banned-ships-are-given-due-to-how). (When is karushuu week im sobbing)


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! How have you been? I've been busy somewhat with rarepair week but I don't have anything written for the last 3 days (I had... ideas but they're too strange even for my taste to come to fruition, and then again I just have no time. Maybe I'll make them into something more concrete in the future.)
> 
> Hope everyone enjoyed the last chapter! It was a little long, and this one is kind of long too, I think. I'm actually super excited for what I have planned in the proceeding chapters, kudos to whoever who can guess what it is! (Aside from you, Fruit, you already know.) I've been sticking kinda close to the canon timeline so you can... sort of extrapolate what might happen next? But don't worry, whatever you guess, it'd be wrong. 
> 
> We'll be exploring this strange demon-verse I created (I can't wait you guys) and yes, that means we'll have some more demon lore dropping this chapter! 
> 
> Now that's what I call...

Karma quickly finds out that Asano is a cuddler. It's not something he expects at first, but he finds himself armful of snuggly demon at every opportunity, fluffy wings optional. Karma makes sure to take extra effort in complimenting them although he doesn't see how they're "stunted" in any means. Maybe he needs an actual demon's wings for comparison? They must be massive then.

Asano is very touched starved, because demons, even demon dads of half-demon children, don't believe in hugging. 

Karma finally gets the courage to ask "what happened to your mom?"

"She died," Asano says, but he doesn't sound bothered about it. "Dad said he picked a high quality woman to sire a child with and he wouldn't have minded co-parenting but she died in a car accident when I was four." 

"Oh," Karma says. "Sorry." 

"I think Dad had a crush on her," Asano giggles. "Or the demon version of what a crush constitutes, anyways. He always tells me that I wouldn't have lived to this age if he picked anyone else and sometimes he complains about how nobody else is as 'objectively attractive' as Mom was." Asano grows a little wistful. "I wish I could have met her." 

"She sounds wonderful," Karma says. "Maybe if she was there you'd know what blushing was." 

Their semester examinations come and go again. Karma maintains status quo with his grades - he's not about to lose to Asano again - but his classmates take a hit to their scores. They've injured an old man pakouring on the roofs and Koro-sensei had bid them to rebuild his school as punishment. 

This, Karma thinks, is a good human principal.

Karma's ready to spend the weekend doing absolutely nothing and convincing Asano to do nothing with him, that is, if nothing was snuggling together on the couch and eating junk food.  He should pick up some snacks on the way back. Asano has a meeting to attend to, flaws of being a student council president, so Karma hangs around in class until it ends, and then Bitch-sensei pokes her head into the room. 

"Hey, sensei," Karma says absently, playing a game on his phone, when she's across the room in record time and plucks it out of his hands. 

"Hey!" Karma says.

"Follow me," she instructs, and struts out of the classroom. Karma takes off after her, but she pulls him aside and locks them both in an empty storage room. Karma tightens his hand around the knife in his pocket in alarm, but he knows that he's no real match against her (her gaze flicks to his pocket rather pointedly) and he braces herself.

"I know you don't have a spirit," Bitch-sensei says.

Karma relaxes. Is that what this is about? "I'm glad you came to your senses," he drawls. "This was too long of a drawn-out joke, Bitch-sensei, I was wondering when-"

"You have a demon."

Karma stills. "I'm sorry?' He says, voice deceptively cool. He feels for the bond, it tugs strong and sure in his abdomen.

"A demon," she says, staring at him. "You've got yourself in quite a situation there, haven't you? You promised your soul for what, may I ask?"

Karma doesn't answer. What can he say? 

"You threw your life away for a single whim," She looks at Karma sadly for a few seconds. "I know what's that like."

Wait, does that mean-

"I'm as human as you," she says. "I'm sure Karasuma has given you kids my file, on my background," she flicks a lock of hair absentmindedly. Karasuma-sensei had indeed given them a brief, but it was from Asano that Karma had a full breakdown from. Karma doesn't say that, but he thinks he can imagine - war survivor, dead parents, the desperation must have led her to forming a contract with a demon. But Asano had never mentioned that she had been contracted unless it was something he couldn't detect... 

"I found my own way out of it," she says abruptly, "I broke the contract. I don't owe anyone anything now," Bitch-sensei turns to look at him, "I can help you."

Oh shit. "I don't think... that's necessary," Karma tries. He takes a step back. 

"Does your soul mean nothing to you?!" Bitch-sensei says, eyes lighting up with a chilling desperation. "You're so young, Karma, you shouldn't have- I studied the dark arts, I promise that neither you nor your family will come to harm-" 

"I didn't wager my soul!" Karma shouts.

She slams a hand on a table. "That's impossible! All demonic contracts are soul-bound!"

"What about an indefinite one?" Karma tries. "A, uh, symbiotic relationship- a friendship!"

"Friends?" She sneered. "You expect me to believe that- no, you're clearly under some sort of enchantment from that demon. I can exorcise him and-"

"No!" Karma yells. "Bitch-sensei, Irina-"

She quickly says an incantation of some sort, and the room's temperature drops. Karma feels a vicious tug to the bond, and he falls down to his knees. 

Bitch-sensei looks briefly concerned, but she finishes the chant.

Asano appears in the middle of the room.

Bitch-sensei is staring directly at him, except she doesn't seem to have any recognition of some sort on her face. She's frowning.

"C-can you see him?" Karma asks. Asano is staring at him in shock, feet planted on the ground. 

"It's a him?" Bitch-sensei says. "No. I know something's there."

"It's a him," Karma says. "Hey, so my sensei is convinced you're here with malicious intent and to eat my soul. Can you convince her otherwise?"

Asano stares at him with a look that says, "how the fuck am I supposed to do that?"

"it feels odd..." Bitch-sensei says, frowning. "It's energy is..."

"She's a witch," Karma says. "She broke a contract with her demon."

Asano's eyes widen. He turns around to stare at her, brows furrowed in concentration.

"Are you seriously talking to it?!" Bitch-sensei says, "Stop telling it about-"

"Derek Cordin," Asano says.

"Derek?" Karma says, confused-

She whips a gun out of a hidden holster, points it straight at Asano and fires. He ducks out of the way but hits some sort of invisible barrier, the bullet goes through his leg, and Karma collapses. 

"I can feel whatever you're doing to him!" Karma yells, as Asano presses against the barrier with wide eyes and a bleeding leg. Karma winces. "Stop that!"

"What?!" Bitch-sensei drops the gun and hurries over. "That's not..."

"We have a very unique bond," Karma gets out. "God, this fucking hurts."

Bitch-sensei frowns. "Where did I get him?"

"Left leg," Karma says. "Hey, I thought you said you couldn't be shot while you were incorporeal!"

"Devil's trap nulls that effect," Asano says. He seems unconcerned about his wound which Karma knows must be hurting like a bitch.

"You're in a devil's trap?" 

Bitch-sensei looks shocked. "It's under the carpet."

"Great," Karma sighs. "Can you please let him out and not exorcise him? I really don't have my soul at stake here."

"Your bond is so unusual..." Bitch-sensei says, "I'm almost inclined to believe it. But I'm not letting another one of those monsters roam free. You must understand that, Karma. You'll be better off without it."

"A demon exorcism?" Karma asks.

Bitch-sensei furrows her brows. "Yes."

"Results may vary," Karma says. "You're not even dealing with a whole demon."

"Yeah, spill her secrets then spill mine, Akabane," Asano says. 

"Oh shut up, do you really want her to exorcise you? Huh?"

"What do you mean not a whole demon?!" Bitch-sensei demands.

"I have a half demon," Karma says. "Don't you have stupid superhealing? Why does my leg still hurt?" 

"Devil's trap," Asano reminds him. "I'm healing at a human rate. Stop complaining, I feel it too."

"Those don't exist," she snaps.

"One does." Karma says. "Can you please do something non-malicious to prove your innocence?" 

"I took a bullet for you," Asano snaps. "What more do you want?" But he beats his wings once, sending a gust of wind around in the classroom to catch her attention, and then must turn visible because in the next moment he says, "Hi, Miss Irina." 

Bitch-sensei does a double-take. "Aren't you the principal's kid?" She whispers. 

Asano beats his wings again, and then folds them over his back like a cape, and bows at the waist. "Gakushuu Asano at your service."

"Dramatic bitch," Karma mutters.

Asano looks at him, eyes twinkling.

"I always knew there was something up with the principal," Irina hisses. "He's a demon." She eyes Asano uncertainly. "You're half."

"My mother was human," Asano tells her. 

"Why?"

"I'm an experiment," Asano says tonelessly, and Karma winces. "Half-demons are not supposed to exist and they are often culled for impurity as young. My father was interested in observing how a half-demon would fare in the human realm."

Bitch-sensei scowls. "And whose side are you on?"

"There are no taking sides when you're torn from both worlds," Asano says, baring his teeth in a smile. "I belong to none. Surely you'd understand that concept."

"Why have you bound Karma to you?" She demands. 

"Why did he perform a summoning ritual in the janitor's closet?" He counters.

Bitch-sensei turns to him. "You what?!"

Karma throws his hands up in defense. "How was I supposed to know demons are real?!"

Asano snorts, drawing their attention. "He drew a broken devil's trap. He was lucky I answered the summon."

Bitch-sensei rolls her eyes. "Would have served him right anyways."

"I'm right here!" Karma exclaims.

They ignore him. "If you kill me, my father won't be happy," Asano says. "And I cannot determine the effects of a demon exorcism, although I'm certain that due to my human side, I would bleed out and die if you leave me here. As for what would happen to Karma, given the unique nature of our bond..." Asano prods his leg, and Karma winces again. "We can find out in, say, a couple of hours?"

"What kind of bond do you have?" Bitch-sensei says. 

"Fuck if I know." 

"Can you please sit down?" Karma says. "I know you're trying to act cool but I can feel you feeling the blood loss. I can't pass out on your behalf but please sit down."

Asano crosses his arms. "Stop whining and eat some painkillers."

Karma thinks. "Will that work 2-way?"

Asano shrugs. 

Bitch-sensei tosses a first-aid pouch at him. She turns back to Asano. "Karma said he didn't wager his soul."

"Yes," Asano says. "Cordin did not offer you the condition simply because it was in his disfavor to do so. You would have made a contract with him wagering your soul. Akabane would not have, and I could not allow him to wander unbound with knowledge of my nature. An indefinite contract has limits, I am bound to him as he is to me, but the deal is not as strong. You may not have known but under your contract, Cordin would have been forbidden to allow you to come to any harm, especially not by his hand." His gaze flicks to Karma. "On the other hand, I could punch Karma in the face."

Bitch-sensei is silent.

"May I know how you did it?"

"I promised my servitude to a coven," she says. "I was taken under their apprenticeship and the coven exorcised it." She cocks her head. "Then I assassinated all of them." 

"A whole coven," Asano looks intrigued. "From my knowledge, Cordin wasn't a particularly powerful demon. You shouldn't feel attached, demons don't feel love."

"I know that," Bitch-sensei says. "What about half-demons?"

Asano's lips flatten into a thin line.

"He does," Karma says, because he really needs to quicken this process. The pool at Asano's feet keeps spreading. "He's not very demonlike at all. He has allergies. Demon's don't have allergies."

"Akabane!" Asano scolds.

"He blushes! It's super cute. He needs to eat human food and he found the girls in Kyoto and he made friends with Itona when he was captured by Shiro!" 

"Shut up!" Asano snarls.

"No, you!" Karma snaps. "You insufferable demon! Why do I even care about you? Just get exorcised, you piece of- ooOOOOWWW YOU DID THAT ON PURPOSE!"

"Did I?" Asano challenges. "I'm feeling everything that you are, don't forget. Am I giving myself excruciating pain?" 

"Yes!" Karma says. "When I get my hands on you-"

"Walk, bitch," Asano says. 

"I hate you so much," Karma says.

"Well, I'm convinced," Bitch-sensei interrupts. She produces a knife, stabs it on the ground, and Asano falls over.

"What did you do?!" Karma yells.

She graces him with a flat look. "I just broke the circle." 

"And I was leaning against it," Asano mutters. He sits up and examines his wound, and the bullet falls out. "It'd be fine."

Karma crawls over to him and starts on the bandages, batting Asano's hands away when he tries to stop him. "For my sanity, let me," Karma says. "I cannot see you bleeding all over the floor like that."

"Karma," Asano whines.

"Ga-ku-shuu," Karma parrots back. 

"Ugh," Bitch-sensei says. Her hands glow, she mutters some mumbo-jumbo, and the next moment Karma's leg doesn't hurt anymore. Asano stretches his.

"Thank you." 

"Whatever," she says, wrinkling her nose. "You're the first human I know that's dating their demon." She makes a face. "Half demon." 

"What-wait, we aren't!-"

"Tons of demon-human pairs have had sexual relations," she mutters, now deep in thought, "and I've heard of cases where the human unwittingly falls for their demon." She eyes Asano suspiciously. "Is that what happened to your mother?"

"No, she was never aware of my father's species," Asano says. "She died when I was a child."

"But you feel love," Bitch-sensei says. "You love Karma?"

"Yes," Asano nods emphatically.

"We're not dating!" Karma wails. 

Both of them ignore him. "What else?" Bitch-sensei says. "You need to eat?"

"Akabane is very good at cooking," Asano says. "Also, we're just friends."

Bitch-sensei snorts. "Okay then. I won't exorcise you but I expect your assistance from now."

"I've been a lab rat my whole life," Asano shrugs, "why not?"

"Wait," Karma's head is spinning. "What?"

"My father should be too powerful for you or any ordinary coven to handle," Asano says, standing up, "but I'm sure he'll be delighted to have a research partner."

"Delighted is a word," Bitch-sensei snorts. "Sure, I'm down. Do human potions affect you?" 

"Potions are a human magic so I've yet to be exposed to it's effects," Asano says, "but we could-"

They exit, chatting, and leave Karma in the empty room. He blinks at the door.

"Uh, guys?"

...

"Guys?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...throwing everyone a curveball. 
> 
> Is that what people call it?
> 
> I love the Gakuhou bashing going on in the comments btw. It's hilarious. I just love the comments section periodt, everyone is great fun to talk to!! I still think we need a huge group chat somewhere. I won't make an "official statement" about the Gakushuu-Gakuhou dynamic just yet, Gakushuu is a soft poor boi and I love him (sobs) and I would say that Gakuhou does like his kid, but he also sucks at parenting. It shall be up to interpretation for now (and if you have any, please comment them HAHA I love reading those).
> 
> Have fun!


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy November! I have good news and bad news.  
The good news is, there's another chapter! Yay!  
Well the bad news is, there's another chapter. Yall know what's up. (Well ok, you don't, but you will soon.) Let's find out. 
> 
> Slightly less bad news, there's a bit of interest in a group chat (yay?) And I still have 0 clue what we'll do there but i guess we can just... make friends and talk about stupid shit. There's nothing much you can do with ao3 comments.  
Anyways Talluna (thanks love <3) suggested Discord, I thought you wanted to throw hands but I see now that it's just goth skype. If people are still interested...? 
> 
> Also guess what, a bitch is sick again! I was down with the flu about two weeks ago, and it's back! I wish good karma returned to me that fast. I gave like 10 bucks to a charity two months ago and I haven't found spare change on the street yet. Be glad that I don't do podfics or all you'll hear is me coughing like a horse. I have never heard a horse cough and I don't want to.

Bitch-sensei, Karma thinks, was an enigma of a person and someone he’d begrudgingly come to respect, and she was an assassin with dozens of kills under her belt and a  _ witch _ with actual magical powers. It's understandable, Karma thinks, that he's doubly worried when she gets kidnapped, because who the fuck? Another magical user? 

The man standing in their classroom laughs and bows at the waist, and Karma feels fear grip him. In moments Asano is next to him, eyes wide and and frozen, and whatever has  _ him _ alarmed is incredibly disconcerting to Karma.

"The god of death," Nagisa says in stunned horror. The image of Bitch-sensei on the screen, gagged and subdued, plays in Karma's mind. Who was the God of Death, the Reaper, and how did he-

"Demon," Asano says, voice chilling. He disappears then reappears again, in his hands  _ the book _ that Karma thought he'd never see again in his life, worn and leather-bound and full of the occult. He presses the book into Karma's hands and on hesitation pushes a sharpie in his pocket. He's gone before Karma even has time to question it. 

Demon? Did he mean… Reaper was a demon? Or that he had one?

The class is already planning the stakeout, Karasuma-sensei looks suitably distressed, despite his aloofness. Karma can't bring the whole book with him, but…

He uses his phone camera to snap a picture of the demon summoning pages. He has the devil's circle memorized but it never hurts to be sure. 

Asano reappears again. He shoves a candlestick in Karma's hands, and a lighter. Karma hurriedly stuffs them into his pocket. "A-"

"You don't have much time," Asano hisses, "I will only be able to- once you get there  _ this  _ is your priority unless you want your friends to die."

He vanishes again. Karma looks up when his name is called, they're deciding the team lineups. He's in team A. 

The candle weighs heavily in his pocket. Karma tightens his grip around it.

Koro-sensei dresses like a dog to track Bitch-sensei down, but Karma can't even appreciate it. They're dealing with much bigger things than them, this is no time for games! Partway through the track Asano appears by his side again. His face is expressionless but he's tense, the bond twisting between them betrays his emotion.

Karma wants to throw up. Those are not entirely his feelings. 

Asano takes in a long deep breath and snaps his fingers. He's in matching apparel with the class now, their camouflage stealth suits. Karma can't ask but Asano tells him anyways. "He'll know there's a demon among you," he says, "it'd be harder to tell it's me."

Demons, Asano explains to him later after picking out the name of Irina's demon, can recognize each other even when masquerading as human. It's not an abstract concept, Asano says, much like simply recognizing that a mannequin, despite its likeness, is not a human being, but the vice versa isn't applicable simply because humans are unaware of and thus do not learn to recognize demons. Magical humans like Bitch-sensei were an exception, but they couldn't pick supernatural creatures out by look alone. Energy signatures gave off different... levels of magic, but that alone was not a basis for judgement, because even normal humans could be slightly magical for all sorts of reasons. "You," Asano had said, "are decidedly unremarkably unmagical, but your entire class has slight magic auras because of your proximity to Koro-sensei who _is_ magical, and Koro-sensei is magical because... well, magic is just a term for science that humans have yet to understand, and who understands dark matter, really?" 

"It gives me some sort of an advantage, then, that I can hide in plain sight," Asano says. "Because I'm human enough to pass… that is…" He winces. "If they don't already recognize me."

Karma's voice drops low. "What are the chances?"

Asano doesn't reply. Karma grits his teeth. 

Reaper, through a series of elaborate mechanisms, traps them in a prison cell made of anti-sensei material. He wants to flood the place and drown all the children, Koro-sensei and 3-E escapes the cage. Bitch-sensei is not captured and she had been colluding with Reaper this entire while to trick them and obtain the prize money for themselves. 

Bitch-sensei is not captured by Reaper, but she looks Karma in the eye and Karma knows _she knows_. 

It happens in a flash, just after Reaper and Bitch-sensei leave and Karasuma-sensei almost goes after them. Asano curses, drops his disguise, yells "hundred percent!" Karma whips around. Asano bolts, his wings spread half-open as if to take off, and a blur too fast to be registered crashes into him. 

Karma screams. Everyone turns to look at him, what's wrong Karma, what happened, did you get shot? Karma doesn't answer any of them, he's frozen in horror as a tangle of limbs and feathers crash into the ground.

The bond flares up in pain and Karma falls to his knees. 

That's another demon.  _ That's another demon _ . It's not Reaper who's the demon, Reaper  _ has one _ .

Asano is grappling with him, they're ripping at each other  _ oh my god _ -

"What are you waiting for?!" Asano shrieks.

Karma empties his pockets. The sharpie and candle fall out.  _ Right _ .

"Move," Karma hisses, and his classmates jump out of the way. He starts drawing a huge devil's circle on the concrete- this one  _ has  _ to he perfect, there is no room for mistakes-

More pain bursts from his abdomen. There are feathers everywhere, bursting out like two birds mid-fight, and nobody sees it, nobody else sees it. Karma grabs a feather out of the air. 

It's dipped in red.

"Wait, where did you pull that out from?!" Nakamura demands. "What are you drawing-"

Her exclamation catches the attention of the other demon, who flings Asano away like a rag doll and growls at Karma and speeds towards him- 

-and gets thrown to the side again as Asano slams into him. More wings beat, flesh tears against flesh and bone snaps against bone-

Karma swallows down bile and finishes the circle. He pulls out his phone with shaky hands, scrolls to the picture. 

"Akabane," Karasuma-sensei says angrily, "this is no time for-"

"Shut up!" Karma screams hoarsely. The class abruptly falls into silence. 

"Dolor sit amet," Karma starts shakily, "consectetur adipiscing elit-aaAAHH!"

The demon slams into the ground inches from him, hand outstretched, inches from Karma's arm. He's dragged back, and 3-E congregate around Karma and ask if he's okay, if he needs help, is he drawing a devil's circle? Is this some sort of joke? Are we in an anime? Fuwa, is that the most of your concerns right now- 

"-Fusce placerat faucibus purus!" Karma says.

Asano tears off part of the demon's face, who twists and rips off his wing. Fire explodes around them.

Karma finishes off the incantation, and in the next moment the demon is off Asano and in the devil's trap, throwing itself against the invisible barriers surrounding the circle. 

The class screams. Oh great, they can see him.

At least they know Karma's not crazy anymore.

Oh, _fuck_. 

Karma risks a quick glance at Asano. He's splayed on the ground in a pool of blood, but he's awake and glaring at the demon, who hisses back in a guttural language Karma doesn't understand.  Asano glares back, then closes his eyes and rests against the floor, wings closing in around himself. His body rises and falls rhythmically.

It turns to Karma then, staring chillingly. "You," he says.

"What the FUCK!" The class is in hysterics. Karma doesn't blame them. He barely knows what's going on himself but he just summoned a demon in front of them.

The demon in question is a tall young man with dark hair and bright eyes. His wings are larger than the demon trap can hold… they're enormous, and they're not fluffy or soft in any way like Asano's are. They're thin and sleek and dripping in blood. They're  _ weapons _ , Karma realizes, for slicing and slashing and severing. But they're tattered and torn, some of the blood on them is from Asano but some of them is his, and his left cheek is shredded. He drags a long bloody hand down the sides of the devil's circle, coating the invisible wall with blood. "So you're the mongrel's new pet."

Karma gets to his feet shakily. "And you're Reaper's demon."

The demon smiles at him. It's all sharp teeth. 

"You lying, conniving BITCH!" Everyone snaps towards the sound, where Reaper has backhanded Bitch-sensei, who whips back up with a surprising ferocity and slams him back to the ground. He gets back up, pistol cocked. Bitch-sensei's hands glow in response, and she takes a vicious swipe at him.

He crumples to the ground. His demon grins viciously, blood dripping around his teeth. Who's blood is it? 

"Witch," he greets. "I smelt the occult on you. I should have flayed the flesh from your bones despite my master's insistence that you would be useful."

Bitch-sensei stalks up to them, tossing her hair back in a long ponytail. She taps something in her phone, then whips out a container of... something, and sprinkles it on the ground. Well, she sprinkles it on Asano, but nobody else sees it. "Let's get this show on the road. Sturdy trap, Karma, good work."

"Bitch-sensei?!" The class says, Karasuma and Koro-sensei are staring blankly. Bitch-sensei waves like a celebrity to paparazzi and sparks fly out of her fingers. Dramatic.

The demon tilts his head. "How smart of you to have brought reinforcements, but you cannot even begin to think about doing any harm on your lonesome. What a pity you don't have a coven, and even then." 

The more powerful the contractee was, the more powerful their demon needed to be. Bitch-sensei's demon wasn't particularly powerful, Asano had said, perfect to tie down an innocent little girl, but Bitch-sensei had grown far stronger and more conniving than he could handle, and he had paid the price for it. Reaper's demon must be an incredibly strong one.

Bitch-sensei scowls at it. "You'll get what you deserve in due," she says, then turns to stare at something behind Karma's back.

Karma whips around to see the Principal with a disinterested expression on his face. He meets the terrified eyes of his classmates, who don't see the Principal walk around them, but they follow his line of sight.

"Pleasure to see you again, Ivanoff," the Principal says. "Although I suppose the circumstances could be better." 

"Don't tell me you're working with this witch," the demon makes a disbelieving sound. "The idea of cultivating a halfling was ludicrous enough!-"

"And yet," the Principal says, a slow smile spreading on his face, "he bested you in combat."

"I would have crushed him," the demon snarls, "if not for his meddling  _ human _ ." Karma takes a cautionary step back.

"Who is he talking to?" Somebody says. Karma shakes his head.

"You are in no better condition than he is," the Principal says.

"He will not survive the night," the demon says.

A flicker of something crosses the Principal's face. "Neither will you."

"You're a traitor to your kind," the demon bristles. He looks… marginally more nervous now. "Exorcising me?"

"On the contrary," the Principal says, "I believe it'd be a valuable educational experience, don't you think?"

"I get it," the demon laughs hysterically. "You're attached, aren't you?" It presses against the barrier and takes a long look at Asano. "His blood was bitter like the rat he is. He'll boil from the inside out with the venom in his blood-"

From the ground, Asano groans, and Karma's heart skips a beat. "Tell him that demon poison doesn't work on halflings and get him to shut up," he mumbles, turning over. "His voice is grating in my ears and I need to sleep off the poison." 

The demon snarls. "You little!"

"The exorcism, Irina," the Principal says, narrowing his eyes.

"You can't do this!" The demon slams into the barriers of the trap. "Traitor! COWARD! You're too sentimental!" 

The Principal throws his own wings out, wow, WOW! Karma was never making fun of Asano again. Karma was shitting his pants. 3-E was screaming. Why are they screaming? Why is this entire place shaking like an earthquake? Is it because of the angry demon? It was probably because of the angry demon. 

"Consider it a mercy I am allowing you to burn in hellfire," the Principal snarls, and the demon is… yep, he's terrified. When Asano said his dad was powerful, he seriously understated. "You would not like the alternative if I were to deal your punishment."

He and Bitch-sensei start an incantation of some sort. The class takes several steps back as the devil's trap glows. Karma leans over Asano, who peeks a large violet eye out of his wing to observe the proceedings.

The demon stares straight at Karma, expression chilling, as the worst grin spreads over his mouth. He goes out in a blaze of hellfire, and the devil's trap is worn and scorched where he left it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, there it is. This ought to turn the story to an interesting path, don't you think?
> 
> Just to let everyone know I edited a bit of chapter 1, but it's just on the... ah, summoning techniques, per say? Previously I had Asano say that demons can choose to not answer a devil's trap summon but it won't work for this, so I changed the conditions a little.
> 
> Also, whatever Karma's saying? It's just lorem ipsum. 
> 
> Do let me know your thoughts about a discord chat!


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can sheer willpower alone allow me to unread this chapter?
> 
> Hey everyone! How are you doing? Don't let the first sentence scare you. It's nothing, really. Ever wanted to re-experience something for the first time? I get that a lot. I want to be able to re-read some of my favorite fics as if I'm reading them for the first time, good thing I have such a shitty memory it's essentially the same.

After all that, after Karma watches the Principal scoop Asano's limp body up and teleport them away, after Reaper is taken into custody and the class is safe and sound back on Kunugigaoka, just barely 3 whole hours after the altercation, Karma's exhausted, but his class needs answers. Karma exchanges a look with Bitch-sensei and thinks, "fuck."

"I am a witch," Bitch-sensei says, this is their cover story now. "I don't use magic to seduce my targets or assassinate them, I don't need it, but I do use them for demon exorcisms, as you have all witnessed. Karma here is my apprentice. Why don't you tell them what you can do?" 

"I talk to demons," Karma says. Eyes are on him. "I was never speaking to a wind spirit, it was a demon."

"When Reaper approached me," Bitch-sensei says, "he was in contract with a demon."

"He didn't know you were a…" Yada shifts. "Witch?"

"No, but I had a feeling he wouldn't hesitate to use his demon if I didn't comply to his wishes." Her lips curl, and she leans against the teachers' desk, crossing her arms. "He had a powerful demon, too. As much as I'd hate to admit it, I couldn't handle it alone."

Fuwa's hand shoots up. "What happened to it? There was more than one demon, right?" 

"I exorcised it," Bitch-sensei says. "As for what happened," she looks at Karma and shrugs, handing the stage to him. It was up to Karma to decide the narrative, after all, it was his demon. But Karma didn't care about that, he just wanted to know if Asano was okay.

He looks up at his class, who stare back expectantly.  It's a secret he could no longer keep, as much as he hated to admit it. Karma digs his hand in his pocket, feeling for the sharpie. He was never letting it out of his reach. 

"I'm friends with a demon," Karma says. "It was never a wind spirit. He fought Reaper's demon while I drew the devil's trap. That's who Reaper’s demon was talking to."

Sugino gasps. "Kyoto," he says, eyes sharp. "That's how you knew where Kanzaki and Kayano were without the map, right?"

Karma shifts. "Yeah."

"And Okinawa!" Maehara says. "You knew it was a cold virus and not a poison!"

"And the hurricane that saved the antidote!" 

"I heard Takaoka's gun go off but Nagisa wasn't shot! Was that the demon, too?" 

"Was he there when Shiro tried to attack us with Itona? Uh, no offense."

"...none taken."

"Was the demon the person you needed to apologize to?"

"Hey, yeah! Did you build him a shrine?" 

The questions come barreling in all at once and Karma feels overwhelmed. "Hey!" Bitch-sensei snaps. The class falls silent. 

Karma sighs. "Yeah, he was there. We were never in any real danger for… anything." 

"We should write him a thank you card!" Fuwa says excitedly, clapping her hands. "Is he here?"

Everyone looks at Karma expectantly, except…

"No," Karma says softly. "No, he's not."

Asano… "I don't know if he's alright," Karma admits. 

Bitch-sensei puts a hand on Karma's shoulder. "Reaper's demon was vicious," she says. "The stronger the contractee, the stronger the demon must be - no offense, Karma, but his demon was rather…" Her eyes flick to him. "Well, he held his own good enough."

There's an uneasy air. "Is…" Isogai says, "is he okay?"

"I don't know, I don't know," Karma says. He buries his hands in his pockets. The bond was… barely there, the weakest Karma has ever felt it, it's like someone had a knife to the string, like Asano's fingers were slowly slipping from his grasp and Karma was trying his best to hold on-

"Karma?"

"I don't know!" Karma says.

Bitch-sensei places a hand on his shoulder. "Karma, he'll be fine."

"Is there anything we can do?" Okuda says.

Karma laughs bitterly. "There's nothing that even  _ I  _ can do," he says. 

The school day is over now, and nobody is in the mood for studying anyways. "Go home," Koro-sensei insists, even if they're bursting with questions, even if he himself is. Karma is in no shape to answer any of them, he’s allowed to recuperate in the staff-room as Karasuma-sensei and Koro-sensei have a heated debate in the hallway. Bitch-sensei pushes a thermos into his hands. It tastes unlike anything Karma has ever had, but warmth washes down him.  She hangs up the call. Karma looks at her expectantly.

" The poison's already making its way out of his system," she says, "but…" 

"But?" Karma demands.

Bitch-sensei looks at him, hesitating, then says, "let's just visit them."

"V-visit them?" Karma says. 

"Sure," she says easily, like she didn't just suggest they walk straight into the lion's den. "You've never been?"

"You have?"

"Gakuhou and I have made incredible progress and insights in the field," she says. "Gakushuu is… fine. He will be." 

Irina's on a first name basis with Gakushuu. Why isn't Karma? He'd known him longest, dammit.

Irina's smirking at him. Can witches read minds?

Karasuma-sensei enters the room but Bitch-sensei's name dies on his lips, and he stares awkwardly at both of them. Karma waves.

"Let's get going, Karma," Bitch-sensei sings, "the dead won't raise themselves!"

Karasuma-sensei blanches. Karma snickers and says, "sure, my lady," and she smacks him. Out of earshot of Karasuma-sensei, Karma buries his hands in his pockets. "Can you really raise the dead?"

She doesn't reply to that. "Let's bring cookies," she says, "ooh, flowers. Great for potions. You know what goes in a love potion, Karma?"

"That sounds unethical," Karma says. "Roses?"

"Roses are finicky flowers," Bitch-sensei says. "Pretty, yes, and they hold magic well which makes them perfect to cast spells on, but they don't have anything innately magical in them and they're really not good for much else. They  _ are  _ a prime choice to transfer love potions with."

"Huh," Karma says. They stop at a florist and she chooses a very unorthodox but gorgeous set of blooms, sends Karma across the road for said cookies, and then they find themselves on the Asano's estate.  Karma's passed it plenty. He's never set foot on their porch before.

The door opens before they knock. "Irina, Akabane," the Principal greets, "nice of you two to pay a visit."

"Love potion," she says immediately, "effects?"

"Temporary lust," the Principal says. He makes a face. "Not now."

She takes him by the arm, shoves the bouquet in Karma's direction, and starts chatting him to the table. The Principal waves a hand and the door slams shut behind them. Karma jumps.

"Third door on the left on the second floor," the Principal says. They're in the kitchen now.

"Uh," Karma says. "Thanks." He doesn't see anywhere to leave the bouquet, so he continues carrying it awkwardly up the stairs. It's a surprisingly normal house, Karma thinks, even though he didn't know what he expected. A demon cave? Did demons even live in caves?

The third door to the left is already open, so Karma peeks in. It's a regular normal bedroom that has regular normal teenage boy things, and it doesn't take long for Karma to realize it's Asano's room. Especially given that the boy himself is fast asleep on the bed, a wing wrapped around him, the other obscured by what must be a whole mountain of blankets.  They're straggled and ripped, like they're barely there. Karma remembers that demon's claws tearing at Asano's wings, and he winces.

Should he go in? It feels like an invasion of privacy. Karma watches Asano’s chest rise and fall, his head tilted away from Karma’s line of sight. Very slowly, Karma pushes the door open and steps in.  He half expects for Asano to open his eyes, or say hi, or something. The bond doesn’t even respond.

He sets the bouquet down on Asano’s desk, and sits at the side of the bed.  “Hey,” Karma says softly. “Hi, Asano. Gakushuu. Can I call you Gakushuu?”

Asano’s eyelids flutter a little, but they remain closed. Karma smiles a little. “You saved our lives, you know. 3-E wants to write you a card. I didn’t tell them it was you, of course, but it’s hard to hide the fact that I’ve been conferring with demons now that they’ve seen me summon and exorcise one.”

Asano doesn’t reply. Karma pushes a hand into his hair, then leans down and presses a kiss on Asano’s forehead.

“Damn,” someone says, and Karma whips back up in shock. The Principal is standing at the doorway with an eyebrow raised, and behind him Bitch-sensei is giggling.  Karma glances back at Asano. He's still asleep. 

"He won't wake up for a bit," Bitch-sensei says. She plucks out the head of one of the flowers in Karma's bouquet, tosses it into the mug she's holding and stirs. 

Karma feels his heart wrench. “But he’ll be okay, right? How long will he be out? When will he wake up?”

She pushes the mug in Karma's hands. "Drink."

Karma looks down at it, petals swirling. "What is it?"

"Calms the nerves," she says. "Speeds up healing."

"I don't need it," Karma says. He starts to set the mug on the table but she tuts at him.

"Well, we can't make Gakushuu drink it so you have to. It's magical so its effects should transfer over the bond." 

"Oh," Karma says. He takes a sip of it. It's salty.

Karma watches Bitch-sensei chant something, and then the Principal waves his hand and says something else, and Asano shifts-

"-wait," Karma says. He passes the mug back to her.

Bitch-sensei startles. "Karma."

"Wait," Karma says. He leans over the bed and tugs the blanket off Asano. He's shirtless, wrapped with bandages and stinking of herbs and medicine, but…

...there’s a large gauze patch wrapped in too much tape, covering the side of the body where his left wing should be.

Where is it?

Karma sucks in a deep breath. He doesn’t…

He…

...what? What?!

“...Karma?” Bitch-sensei says. 

“Tell me this isn’t what it is,” Karma says. 

Bitch-sensei and the Principal exchange a look. 

“It’s… just invisible, right?” Karma says, and he waves his hand over Asano’s side. “I couldn’t touch them when they were invisible. I didn’t know he could make one wing invisible and not the other.”

“Karma,” Bitch-sensei says again. She looks pained.

“Please tell me this isn’t…” Karma claps a hand over his mouth. Softly brushes the side of the bandage. “Asano, wake up. Gakushuu, wake up.”

“It was too damaged to save,” the Principal says, eyes flicking to Asano’s right wing, shredded and torn but still there.  _ Still there _ . “It was severed at the joint.” 

"I did that," Karma sucks in a shuddering breath. “This is my fault.”

The Principal is silent. Bitch-sensei frowns. "Karma, you couldn't have-"

"I'm so sorry," Karma chokes out. "Asano, I'm so sorry."

“Akabane,” the Principal says, brows furrowing. “This was an unprecedented accident and you were not the cause of the injury.”

Something in Karma - maybe it’s the cold tone of his voice, the matter-of-fact way he said it, the lack of interest he’s showing about his son’s mortal injury and how he’ll never fucking fly again. Something in Karma  _ snaps _ . 

“Why are you talking like that?!” Karma pulls at his hair. “He’s not your little experiment, he’s your kid! He loves you, you know that?! Why the fuck did you show up so late?!”

Bitch-sensei’s eyes widen in shock, but the Principal’s expression remains impassive. 

Karma’s not done, he’s not, he’s not! “You got your dramatic entrance and your vengeance against that demon! What else do you want? Why did you have to make Asa- Gakushuu hurt?! He lost his wing and all you can say that it’s unprecedented? Huh?!”

He touches his cheek. It comes off wet. 

“Oh my god,” Karma laughs, “why am I crying? Why am I crying?”

“Akabane,” the Principal says softly. Karma looks at him. 

Principal Asano has a look in his eyes, something akin to pity, but Karma doesn’t want him to pity him. He wants-

“Sleep,” he says, and snaps his fingers. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yep. yes. carry on.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, how has everyone been doing since the last chapter? I hear that you guys hate me now and I am very sad about it. I have a couple of updates for everyone but I'll keep them short because you're surely _ dying _ to read the chapter, right???
> 
> About the discord group chat: It'd happen eventually! My finals are in the next month and I'm going to get them over with before I'm distracted with setting up discord or with you guys (If I have a group chat now I'll never get any studying done). That being said there's an assclass discord, actually, you can read the tumblr post promoting it [here](https://gwendeeagain.tumblr.com/post/188868693474/jdphobe-i-figured-its-time-i-finally-make-an%22)! Sounds like fun, I'll probably join in soon, I think.
> 
> _Speaking of tumblr related events Karushuu Week has been announced by Karushuu-enthusiast (I vibe with them) and you can also check it out [here](https://gwendeeagain.tumblr.com/post/188891830199/karushuu-week-2019)!_
> 
> _Ok some self promo (not really) I just updated by other fic "your son calls me daddy too". It's hilarious typing this name out. I gave them baby goldfish._

It’s evening out, when Karma wakes up. 

His entire body is aching and heavy with sleep, he’s almost too warm, and he’s in someplace unfamiliar.

It’s…

...Asano’s bedroom. He’s in bed. With Asano.

The Principal… told him to sleep. With demon magic? He commanded Karma to sleep? Was that possible?

Apparently so. 

Karma sits up. Asano’s asleep a foot away - the perks of having an enormous bed, still covered in blankets and…

...one wing.

Karma wants to throw up. 

He stumbles out of bed and into the attached en-suite, and retches in the toilet. Uses a little bit of Asano’s mouthwash then staggers back to the bed, and collapses. 

Asano is still out cold. 

What if… what if he never wakes up?

As if to reassure him, Asano stirs. Karma sobs, and kisses the space on his forehead. "I'm so sorry." He pulls Asano into his arms, taking care to keep his only wing free, and curls around him. 

When his head finally stops swimming enough for him to look at his phone, it’s 5.30 in the evening. He took a 2 hour nap, and then Karma realizes how  _ filthy _ he is, coming straight from a field rescue mission back to class and then here. He’s still in his military uniform. 

Karma wipes his face with his hand. He tucks Asano back into bed, plants a kiss on his cheek, and decides to go home and at least take a long hot shower before he does anything else. Of course, his plans are thrown out the window when he emerges into the Asano’s living room and sees the Principal seated at the dining table, going over a bunch of papers.

Of course the Principal was going to be in his own damn house. Karma can’t believe it slipped his mind. He glances up at Karma briefly, inclines his head, then goes back to reading. 

The Principal is… young, Karma realizes, is the first thing that takes him by surprise. Is not what he expects to notice, how youthful he looks. Was it a demon thing? How old was he? He looks in his early 20s, definitely not someone with a 14 year old son. 

He looks… his fairness, Karma thinks, is part of what adds to the inhuman allure about him. He looks very much like his son, and yet there was something distinctly more chilling about him. Where Karma saw warmth and softness in Asano, he saw the abyss in the Principal.

He shivers. 

Is this what Gakushuu would grow up to look like? Karma cringes internally, because he wanted to think that this means Gakushuu would be a rather attractive adult, but then it would mean acknowledging that Karma thought the Principal was attractive. Technically true, but he just didn't want to  _ think  _ it.

"Sit down," the Principal says, waving a hand. A chair across the table pulls out in invitation. 

Karma sits. He folds his hands on his lap awkwardly. "I'm sorry for my outburst," he says. "I didn't mean any of it. I was just frustrated." 

"Gakushuu can be frustrating," the Principal says, in a peculiar tone. He sounds almost  _ fond _ , Karma thinks.

Karma huffs out a laugh. "There's no… chance of getting his wing back?"

"Not yet," the Principal says. He goes back to his notes. "Help yourself to the food," he says, and before Karma can ask what, a selection appears before him.

It's very… uhm, unique. "I thought demons didn't eat," Karma says delicately.

"This are Irina's. She has elected to use our refrigerator for her purposes." the Principal says. Ah, that explains it. Karma didn't think he was a fan of… detox slimming tea.

"Will she be mad if I eat some of these?" Karma says. 

"Probably," the Principal says. 

Fair enough. Karma pops open a bag of chips. They fall back into an awkward silence, punctuated by chip crunching. Why is he sitting here? Did the Principal want to say something to him? He was technically free to leave... right? 

He thinks of Asano - the younger, that is, permanently handicapped. "Is there anything I can do?"

"You could exist," the Principal says.

"Um, I meant about Asa- Gakushuu's wing."

"You could exist," he repeats, and looks up. "I am unable to provide the human type of comfort that he seeks, but you and Irina fill in those gaps. 

"Is that why you let him be friends with me?" Karma asks.

"I don't  _ let _ him do anything," the Principal says. "Besides, I could not break the contract save killing either of you."

"...glad you didn't," Karma mumbles. 

The Principal observes him. "What an interesting phenomenon," he says aloud. 

Karma stills. He feels very much like a lab rat. "What?" He squeaks.

"You like him," the Principal says plainly. He looks at Karma judgmentally. 

"Of course I do, he's my friend," Karma says weakly.

The Principal snorts. "I may be unfeeling of the emotion you call love, but that doesn't mean I don't recognize or distinguish it," he says, but thankfully leaves it at that. Karma requests to go home, gets dismissed with a wave of a hand and turns red at the "I'm not holding you hostage", and takes his leave. 

When Karma wakes up the next morning, he calls for Gakushuu. The bond doesn't respond save for the mildest of twinges, but it feels… fuller, somehow. More  _ alive _ . Karma feels relief course through him.

"Is your demon here yet?" Fuwa greets him excitedly. In the middle of the room, his classmates are huddled around a desk, and Isogai beams at him, holding something up. It's a handmade "thanks for saving our lives" card. It's kind of ugly looking, Karma thinks Asano would love it.

"He's still recovering," Karma says. He buries his hands in his pockets and wonders if he should text Asano, but he's still asleep. He doesn't know how he can tell but he can. He doesn't think he wants to talk to the Principal over text.

The class chatters excitedly over Asano’s- well, Karma’s demon’s recovery but Karma’s… not in the mood to partake in any of that conversation. He offers his classmates a shaky smile and accepts the card on behalf of his demon. Nagisa and Kayano approach him after class. “Is everything alright, Karma?” Nagisa asks. Always so perceptive. “You’ve been looking down all day.”

“Can I tell you something, guys?” Karma says softly. They nod at him, looking concerned.

“My demon… he lost his wing.”

Nagisa’s eyes widen. Kayano gasps. “What do you mean?”

“It had to be amputated,” Karma says. He runs a hand across his face. “The fight with Reaper’s demon… his wing got ripped to shreds. It couldn’t be saved.”

“That’s… awful,” Kayano says. “Can we help?”

“I don’t know,” Karma says honestly. He looks over at the card - messy scrawled signatures, a large stylized smiley face with Koro-sensei’s likeness, a cheery “get well soon!” and artist renditions of a boy with two bat wings and horns on his head.

“That’s not what he looks like at all,” Karma says softly. He covers one wing with his thumb.

Kayano and Nagisa exchange a look. “We’ll walk you home,” Nagisa offers.

Karma almost says no - he almost wanted to drop by the Asano’s but he wasn’t sure how he’d explain  _ that _ . “Sure,” he says instead, “thanks.”

Karma goes home, cooks an extra serving with his dinner, stares at it, and then packs it away in the refrigerator. Takes out his phone, puts it away, takes it out again. Scrolls through his contacts until he lands on D, “Demon Boy”, then goes up to his room and buries himself under the covers and falls into a fitful sleep.

Jolts awake and sits up. Checks his phone. It’s 2am.

“What,” Karma says, but his stomach churns and tugs and he  _ knows _ Asano is awake. 

He’s on the street before he knows it, running down the road with his keys in one hand and phone in another. He hastily dials Bitch-sensei’s number, she answers on the second ring with a sleepy “what the fuck?” and Karma launches into hysterics.

“He’s awake, he’s awake,” Karma blubbers. He’s at the Asano estate. The door swings open before he knocks, Karma hastily greets Gakuhou and sprints up the stairs, and pauses at the third door to the left.

Takes a deep breath, pushes it open. Then almost immediately falls into bed on top of Asano. 

Asano’s half-seated up, hands around a mug of hot water that he jostles in shock. He has one wing draped over his shoulder like a half-cape. Karma takes the mug from Asano, sets it on the table, and pulls him into a hug.

“God, Asano,” Karma murmurs. “Gakushuu. Gakushuu, can I call you Gakushuu?”

“Mhm,” Gakushuu says, face buried in Karma’s chest. Karma tightens his arms around him, feels the emptiness behind his back, and guilt splashes over him once more. 

“I’m so sorry,” Karma whispers. “I’m so sorry. It’s my fault and I’m so sorry.”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry for,” Gakushuu tells him, voice shaking.

“It’s because of me,” Karma shakes his head. He doesn’t want to cry. “Because of the contract. Without it, you wouldn’t have had to fight Reaper’s demon, or lose your wing, but now you’ll n-never fly again a-and you’ve lost your wing and-”

"You idiot," Gakushuu interrupts, pulling away from him to glare at Karma with reddened eyes. "Don't you remember? I don't have to do a thing you say. With or without the contract, you think I would have let your class die anyways?" 

Karma grips his arm. "I…"

"All of you would have been slaughtered like lambs," Gakushuu says, "shredded to little pieces. A wing for the lives of all of you, I'd say it's a good enough trade- oof!" 

Karma pulls Gakushuu onto his lap. He pushes one hand into the mass of black feathers on Gakushuu's back, hovers the other over where his other wing should have been, and lightly presses down. He freezes.

"Does it hurt?" Karma whispers. 

"Yes," Gakushuu says. He pushes his forehead against Karma's neck and shudders. Karma presses his lips behind Gakushuu's ear.

They stay like that for a while, quiet. 

"This is stupid,” Karma laughs wetly. “I’m supposed to be comforting you, not the other way around.”

“I don’t need to be comforted,” Gakushuu says, voice muffled. “I’m an emotionless demon.”

“Hi emotionless demon,” Karma says, “I fucking love you.” He kisses Gakushuu on the top of his head and closes his eyes.

Opens them. The Principal is leaning at the door, a smirk playing at the edge of his lips. Behind him, Bitch-sensei is losing her shit. “Break it up, lovebirds,” she says. “Medical checkup now, snuggle later.” 

Karma’s face burns. “Sensei,” he protests. Gakushuu laughs a little. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't kill me I love you all <3


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Here's a slightly earlier (?) update than usual. I went from daily updates to weekly :( curse my schedule. Have some meaningless fluff this chapter! Not much plot advancement, but some 3E-Gakushuu interaction for you all ;) Or rather, 3E-thin air interaction.

“I have something to tell you all,” Karma says. He’d talked it over with Gakushuu. They both agreed that if anyone, Itona should know, and Gakushuu had claimed he didn’t care about the rest of the class, but Karma watches him turn the card over in his hands and set it on his study desk.  “It’s about my demon.”

The class sits at attention at that, ready for however much sparse information Karma would drop. Nagisa and Kayano exchange looks.

“He lost his wing in the fight with Reaper’s demon,” Karma says.

There’s a collective gasp. Nagisa winces. Gakushuu, seated on Ritsu’s monitor, fluffs his wing and wraps it around himself. Karma rubs his arms awkwardly as the class throws questions at him. 

“He’s fine,” he says. “He’s awake now, and he’s... “ He looks at Gakushuu. “...doing well. Just thought you might like to know.” 

He adds as an afterthought, seeing everyone’s dejected faces, “he likes the card, by the way.” This seems to lift their spirits up, if only a little. Gakushuu rolls his eyes at Karma.

After class, he calls Itona over. Itona has a confused look on his face, but he waits patiently as Karma gathers his thoughts. They sit cross-legged on the grass outside the 3-E classroom, and Gakushuu joins them, invisible. “There’s something you should know.”

Itona inclines his head.

“About your angel,” Karma says, and Itona’s eyes widen. “Yeah, I know. It… I found out because…”

“You can talk to demons,” Itona says. He leans forward. “Angels too?”

Karma winces. “About that. There’s no soft way to break it to you, I…” He exchanges a look with Gakushuuu. He sits in front of Itona, his one wing curled up behind him. Karma reaches for Itona’s hand, and slowly presses it to Gakushuu’s back. 

Itona freezes. “Is that…”

“That’s him,” Karma says quietly. 

Itona reaches his other hand out, and rests it gently on the flat of Gakushuu’s back. Gakushuu shudders. Itona is respectful about it, fingers gentle, although he’s still not sure what he’s looking for, hands hesitantly dancing over what must look like thin air to him. Then his fingers brush the wing, and Itona gasps.

The other hand touches nothing.

“Is…” Itona says. “He’s…”

“Sorry you had to find out this way,” Karma says. That Itona’s guardian angel wasn’t an angel at all, but a grounded demon. Karma's demon, in fact. He doesn't know what might be going through Itona's head.

“I thought I was going crazy,” Itona breathes. He brushes the wing again. “I’m right. You are an angel.”

Karma winces. “Itona,” he starts.

“He saved us,” Itona interrupts. “He’s your demon, but he’s 3-E’s guardian angel.”

Gakushuu claps a hand over his mouth, and he gives Karma a wide-eyed look. He turns around and wraps his wing around Itona, who freezes at the contact then melts, and for once Karma can’t find himself to be jealous about anything. He’s Gakushuu’s human, after all. He smiles at them as Itona flails. “Being hugged my thin air is weird, huh,” Karma says.

“Kinda,” Itona says, but he’s smiling.

Later that day, Gakushuu buries his face in Karma’s chest and shuts his eyes as he does not cry, and Karma holds him through it. “My angel,” Karma whispers, “my demon.”

“If you call me that, I think my dad will kill you,” Gakushuu tells him, laughing wetly. Karma’s careful about the wound. It’s physically healed over, but there’s bad scarring. Karma doesn't know how to approach it, but Gakushuu seems alright with not discussing it in the slightest. 

“But you are,” Karma says. “3-E’s, at least. Guardian angel.”

“I don’t want to talk about politics,” Gakushuu mumbles.

Karma gives him a quick peck on the temple. Then, “are there half-angels around?”

“No,” Gakushuu says. 

“Same principle?”

“I met one, once,” Gakushuu says sleepily. “Her name was Ingrid. She was a few thousand years old, and a statue in the Angel Court pavilion.” 

“Um,” Karma says. “What happened to her?”

“She managed to live till the human age of 23 hiding her parentage because her angel parent was dead and she lived among humans,” Gakushuu says, cuddling deeper in Karma’s arms. “But the Court found out she had no innate magical ability, so they put her on trial for her worth. The backlash of magical ability she couldn’t control calcified her, so they put her on display as a warning.”

“Oh.” Karma says. So angels weren’t the benevolent humanitarians that religion portrayed them to be, huh. Which made sense in hindsight, given that demons and angels were one and the same, just on… differing political views. Wait. “Why were you at Angel Court? Did they try to… uhm… trial you?”

“Mhm,” Gakushuu says.

“Holy shit!” Karma says. But he’s fine, right? “But you’re fine, right? Not calcified in the slightest?”

“Genetics has greatly benefited me in this aspect,” Gakushuu says, yawning. He shows off his fangs. “If I was born a full demon, my magical potential alone would have put me high on the hierarchy. Too bad I’m just a science experiment.”

“I don’t know if I should send the Principal a gift basket or a death threat,” Karma says.

“You should send him the death threat. I want to see what happens.”

“Very funny,” Karma says. 

“Hilarious," Gakushuu agrees. 

All things considered, Karma thinks Gakushuu is... adjusting well. He joins Bitch-sensei and Karasuma-sensei who are lounging in the field, the former spinning light with her fingers and the latter watching with apprehension. Karma's not sure what they  _ are _ , or if they even are anything. Where does the Principal fit in this equation? He and Bitch-sensei are… nevermind.

“You can’t tell by sight alone, but my wings were imbalanced,” Gakushuu says, wrinkling his nose. “My left wing had a stronger bone structure, but the feathers grew in fuller on my right. It made for terrible aerodynamics.” He stretches, silhouette starkly asymmetrical, and leaps up onto the rooftop of the 3-E classroom in a single smooth bound.

“Woohoo!” Bitch-sensei cheers, clapping her hands. Next to her, Karasuma-sensei follows her line of sight and squints against the sunlight, looking appropriately suspicious and fearful. “He’s on the roof?”

“What are you doing?” Karma calls.

Gakushuu doesn’t answer him, folding his wing behind him. He holds his hand up, brows furrowed in concentration, then runs and leaps off the edge of the roof. 

Karma’s heart jumps in his throat, but there’s nothing to be afraid off. A fall like that wouldn’t kill Gakushuu even though Karma might, for giving him a scare like that, except that Gakushuu doesn’t fall at all. His wing fans out behind him, catching the wind like a paraglider, and with a few magnificent twists and several beats, Gakushuu stays in flight for a good few seconds and then comes for a landing at Karma’s feet.

Bitch-sensei cheers again. Karasuma-sensei leaps to his feet at the gust of wind Gakushuu blows his way with his drop, but then gingerly sits down again. Karma gapes.

“Holy shit,” Karma says. “That was  _ incredible _ !”

“Thanks,” Gakushuu says, dusting his shoulder off. “I didn’t think that would work.”

“You jumped off the roof and  _ you didn’t think it would work _ ?!” Karma shrieks.

“Don’t jump off roofs,” Karasuma-sensei says faintly. “As an officer of security, I highly advise against doing so.” 

Gakushuu snorts. “It’s fine. I flew with wings incapacitated before.”

“Why would you do that?” Karma says. He checks Gakushuu over for injuries just in case, but other than stray grass in his hair, the demon looks fine.

“There’s an annual sport where the other demon kids would try to hunt me down and try to kill me,” Gakushuu says cheerily. “When I was younger my father used to find me before they actually murdered me and chased them away, but now I just deal with them myself.”

“ _ What?! _ ” Karma shrieks, again.

Gakushuu leaps up the roof again. “I’ll make it home this time,” he says with determination.

“Wait, no, get down here!” Karma yells at him. “ _ What the fuck did you mean?! _ ” 

Gakushuu grins at him. With another running start, he leaps into the air again and… then crashes down into the forest rather comically, shaking a tree or two and sending actual birds flying.

"He'll be fine," Bitch-sensei says, waving a hand. 

"I know," Karma says, glaring at Gakushuu's direction. He sits down next to her. "You'll teach me magic, right?"

"You are my little apprentice, after all," Bitch-sensei says breezily. "Besides, that means you'll be left defenseless in the midst of two bloodthirsty demons and we can't have that now, can we?"

"There are  _ two _ demons?" Karasuma-sensei says in horror.

"There are so much more than two," Bitch-sensei tells him. "But you should study for your finals instead. Aren't they up soon?"

They are, but Karma knows he’ll ace finals this time. He’s not going to let Gakushuu get the upper hand on him again. He’s not sure if his class is up for it, though, most of them still shaken by Reaper and the existence of the supernatural. He divulges that to Gakushuu, who hums thoughtfully like he’s planning something, and smacks him when Karma narrows his eyes in suspicion.

Karma doesn’t have to wonder long, though.

“Assassinate my father,” Gakushuu says. Around him, 3-E dissolves into hysterics at his word choice. Gakushuu looks up from his half-bow and straight at Karma’s shocked expression, eyes twinkling.  _ That little shit. _

“My father’s teaching ideologies,” Gakushuu lies. “You’ve all been working hard for an entire year with improvements that should be a,” he flicks his sleeve, “miracle, for most of you… but I’m intrigued. Work against the educational system of Kunugigaoka and prove yourselves,” he pauses, “if you can, of course.”

“Asano,” Isogai says, stepping forth with too much unnecessary emotion. “We will do our best.”  The class erupts in a chorus of similar sentiments. 

"You said 3-E needed a final push to strive for academics," Gakushuu shrugs much later in explanation when the class has gone. Karma pounces him and scoops him up. Gakushuu's wing bursts open, flapping to keep them steady, but the imbalance topples them over. Karma does Gakushuu the favor of breaking their fall.

"Ugh," Gakushuu says. His wing folds under him.

"You two are going to give people the wrong idea," Bitch-sensei calls out. Karma clambers up as she walks towards them. "Cuddling on the grass? " 

"We weren't cuddling," Karma says uselessly. Underneath him, Gakushuu starts preening his wing.

Nothing much happens before their examinations, thank god, Karma doesn’t think he can take any more excitement in his life. He puts off learning any form of magic and focuses on math for a while, helping tutor some of his classmates and having study sessions with Gakushuu. When the results come back, Karma stares in a mix of shock, terror and glee at the first place mark he holds. He looks up at Gakushuu whos staring chillingly at him with blazing eyes, and then he gets up and bolts.

Karma makes it halfway out the classroom when Gakushuu tackles him. They go sailing out the window.

"Karma!" His class screams. Koro-sensei flies out but looks perplexed at the scene of Karma fighting nothing, Karasuma-sensei looks scandalized, and Bitch-sensei loses her shit. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some Itona/Gakushuu because I couldn't _resist_, okay, sue me???  
Heheheh what will happen next??? 
> 
> Another broadcast that [Karushuu Week](https://gwendeeagain.tumblr.com/post/188891830199/karushuu-week-2019) is happening in just over a month!!! No pressure but we should all support this ship and join in <3 because it's fun. 
> 
> Speaking of support, I'd like to direct attention to some of the awesome fics starring my boy out there because I love them:
> 
> [at least i got you in my head by Anny_the_Kitty](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20468285) A completed karushuu fic which is REALLY FUCKING ADORABLE you guys  
[Despanation by Shaladaze](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18043598) Shuu gets kidnapped :O but I've been following it for a while and I am on the edge of my sEAT  
[Spice and Magic by skyestar7703](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21413857) was started rather recently but damn I already can't wait to see what happens next  
Honorary mention, doesn't have Shuu-chan in it but [lost and found at sea by gael_itarille](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20885480) which is a kickass Karairi fic that I love :D I need more 
> 
> Why am I doing this? Because I think more people need to read these fics. I shall stop at four this time because my hands are tired from typing and copy-pasting links. Stay tuned for more!


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone, how have you been! I'm back with another chapter! I shan't say anything about it.
> 
> And to clarify because I realized my delivery wasn't that clear.  
In the previous chapter, Gakushuu could be seen by Irina and Karma, but not Karasuma. He's reacting to Karma and Irina's reactions and he's in a perpetual state of confusion. Gakushuu can be selective about who sees him and since Irina already knows and is part of their secret-knowing-gang, he doesn't hide himself around her.

Kayano Kaede is Akari Yukimura, the younger sister of Aguri Yukimura, the sister-in-law of Kotarou Yanagisawa, or Shiro. Her reveal is marked by her second assassination attempt against Koro-sensei - the first had been a giant pudding with a bomb in the middle - and she has dual tentacles snaking from the back of her neck.  She’s out for revenge, she says, because she had been there that day her sister died, bleeding from a fatal wound with Koro-sensei standing above her. She fails at the assassination, but she’s come closer than any of them had had before, and she promises to kill him that very night, back on the 3-E hill.

"Did you know?" Karma says shakily at the reveal.

"No," Gakushuu says. "She has taken the liberty to be anti-demon, I must warn you."

"What?" Karma turns his attention to Gakushuu. "Did she hurt you?"

"No," Gakushuu looks mildly irritated. "She has a devil's trap drawn on her arm."

"Oh," Karma says. "What does that-"

"I can't touch her," Gakushuu says. His eyes turn to slits. "Or rather I can, but it shall be painful."

"What can you do?"

"We'll see," Gakushuu says cryptically. The class reconvenes when the sun sets with Akari promising blood. Koro-sensei divulges information that Karma already knows - he's Reaper, and he had loved Aguri and swore to teach 3-E well after her accidental death. Akari, laughing, says she loves Koro-sensei too.

There are devil's traps drawn on both her arms, and on her legs, so Gakushuu does nothing. Karma doesn't need to worry, however, because they did have a supercreature ex-assassin for a teacher, after all, and Koro-sensei holds Akari down and removes her tentacles, and saves her life from the bloodlust that threatens to consume her.

But that's not before Nagisa kisses Akari within the inch of her life. 

Karma takes pictures at that time with Nakamura, because it was perfect blackmail material and honestly really sweet. It's much later, looking through the photographs with Gakushuu curled up next to him, that he thinks about kissing. 

On the lips.

He’d kissed Gakushuu plenty, on the forehead and cheek and on one occasion on the shoulder. Karma’s not one for living in denial. He’d never been so scared in his life when he thought Gakushuu had died by Reaper’s demon’s hands, when he thought he’d never wake up again, and it finally sets in, the danger that Gakushuu lives his life in. He tells Gakushuu he loves him every day, because he doesn’t want to think of a time he won’t be able to say it.

Gakushuu looks up at him. Shit, did his thoughts translate through the bond? "What's wrong?" His demon asks.

"I," Karma says, and gulps. He looks down at the photograph. Nagisa has a hand on Akari's face, tilting her head towards him. Both their eyes are closed. 

"That's so human," Gakushuu remarks quietly.

"Kissing?" Karma says.

"Not the act in itself. Kissing for feelings." Gakushuu flicks Karma's phone screen and scrolls through the rest of the picture set. Nagisa and Akari are both blushing. Karma is, too.

Gakushuu's warm body is pressed to him, head resting on his shoulders. Karma… 

Would a half-demon kiss for feelings? Did Gakushuu even… feel? That way?

"I want to try it."

"H-huh? What?" 

"Kissing," Gakushuu says, looking at him with a burning gaze.

"K-kissing," Karma stammers. "W-with me?"

"Yes," Gakushuu says, frowning at him. "Who else?"

"What do you mean who else?" Karma shrieks a little, face burning. "Why am I the obvious choice? Why am I even an option?" 

"Because you love me, and I love you," Gakushuu says, inching closer. "Isn't that reason enough?" 

"It's not… that's different…" Karma says weakly. His fingers curl at Gakushuu's bicep. 

“Is it?” Gakushuu whispers. He leans forward a little, and Karma’s gaze drop to his lips - pink, wet, half-parted. Warmth curls in his belly. Is it the bond, or something else?

“How about,” Gakushuu says, eyes half-lidded. “I  _ want _ to kiss you. Is that reason enough?”

Karma’s mouth suddenly feels impossibly dry. His tongue involuntarily flicks out to wet his lips, and Gakushuu doesn’t miss that motion. His eyes twinkle, just a little, and he pushes just a little bit more pressure on Karma’s chest.  Karma doesn’t say anything. There’s something stuck in his throat, he doesn’t know he could speak even if he tried. He holds Gakushuu there, their lips inches away from touching, Gakushuu feeling impossibly warm on top of him. 

Then finally, Gakushuu pulls back a little - Karma almost chases the contact but he’s frozen to the couch. “That’s okay,” Gakushuu says, voice gentle, “we don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

Karma opens his mouth, but no words come out. What can he say? What does he want to say?

“I guess I’ll just do this,” Gakushuu says with finality, and gives Karma a quick peck on the cheek. Karma’s face burns bright when he shouldn’t, they’ve done that countless of times, but he’s left speechless this round as Gakushuu stretches, smiles a little at him, and disappears.

“I have something to tell you.”

“What is it?” Nagisa says patiently. Karma loves this kid. He doesn’t demand answers when Karma calls him in the evening with an impromptu dinner outing, and he watches with a slightly harried but sincere smile on his face when Karma hyperventilates into their dinner. They’re at Nagisa’s house now, in his room, and thankfully his mother is out.

Karma opens his mouth, and shuts it. Looks left, right, and then shuts the window just in case. Nagisa stares at him.

“I… like someone.” Karma admits.

Nagisa’s eyes widen. “Oh my god, Karma! Who is it?”

Karma… doesn’t know. He knows perfectly well who he likes, loves, but the dilemma is about who he should tell Nagisa about. Gakushuu, or the demon? Maybe he should have gone to Bitch-sensei for advice, but he’s pretty sure she would tell the Principal, and Karma doesn’t want to deal with  _ that _ .

Then again, he thinks the Principal already knows. 

Karma doesn’t answer that question. Instead he asks, “what was it like kissing Kayano?”

Nagisa sits back on his chair and considers the question. “It was nice,” he says. “I don’t have much experience, though. It was nothing like kissing Bitch-sensei, although I suppose that might be because she was kissing me with intent to shock me, and I was kissing Kayano to… do the same, but I had the upper hand.”

“I could feel her surprise and nervousness through the kiss,” Nagisa says. “Kayano’s, not Bitch-sensei’s. Her lips were very soft…” Nagisa turns slightly pink. “I have to admit that I wasn’t kissing her with intent of any, ah, feelings, but… it was nice.”

“Do you like her?” Karma asks.

“Ah, maybe?” Nagisa sounds embarrassed. “I don’t know yet.”

They lapse into a brief silence. 

A human was easier to discuss than a demon, Karma decides. He doesn’t want to get into the specifics of half-demons or human-demon relationships, and he thinks Nagisa would be extremely concerned. Not that the alternative wasn’t concerning, but at least Gakushuu was unremarkably human. “I like Asano,” Karma says, and he watches Nagisa choke on nothing and turn as blue as his hair.

“A-asano?!” Nagisa splutters. “Principal’s son Asano?!”

“Well I don’t like the principal,” Karma says, cringing a little at the thought. He waits for Nagisa to gather his thoughts - he looks kind of funny, flailing like that. Nagisa coughs and rubs his cheeks.

“Sorry, that was… unwarranted. Um. How did you… come to that conclusion?”

“We’ve been… hanging out a little,” Karma says, unsure how to put it. 

Nagisa hums. “What do you like about him?”

“He’s…” Karma… doesn’t know what to say. He can’t tell Nagisa about the demon. At least, not until he goes over it with Gakushuu. “He’s actually… nice, beyond that asshole exterior. I mean, he’s still an asshole, and really annoying, but.” He saved 3-E’s life and mine, plenty of times. “He’s also really cute.”

Nagisa cracks a smile. “That’s nice. You’re not sure how to get started about confessing to him?”

“No, it’s…” Karma rubs his arms. “I’m not sure if it’s right.”

Nagisa cocks his head. “To confess?”

“I don’t think I need to confess,” Karma says, and he shakes his head at Nagisa’s hard look. “I’m not trying to ambush him! It’s just… he was the one who… well, he wanted to kiss me first.”

“That’s great!” Nagisa says, then furrows his brows and thinks, “that’s great?”

“It’s…” How did Karma begin to even explain this? “You know… the principal is his dad, right?”

Nagisa, to his credit, doesn’t say anything but nod.

“Let’s just say… Asano had a really sucky childhood. He has a really warped conception of what… liking and loving someone is. He didn’t threaten or harm me or anything, don’t worry, it’s just… he doesn’t have a mom, and the Principal… his dad has never told him that he loves him. Quite the opposite, in fact, his dad keeps telling him that he  _ doesn’t _ love him.”

Nagisa’s eyes soften with noticeable sympathy.

“His…” Karma winces, “uh, cousins, are… um, well, their family is really rich, so all of them are fighting for inheritance. His mom hadn’t been from an ideal background and now that she’s gone, well he never told me the specifics, but he’s kind of the youngest of the bunch and they think of him as a black sheep in the family. They… try to kill him a couple of times, actually.”

“Holy shit,” Nagisa curses. “I had no idea. Is he alright, though?”

“Yeah,” Karma says. He closes his eyes and sighs. “That’s my problem. His family dynamic is messed up and he doesn’t… understand liking and loving people like we do. When I became his friend I didn’t expect loving him, and that altered our bond… uh, my, treatment towards him. I’m concerned that he doesn’t know what he’s really feeling towards me, and that his emotions are influenced by what I project onto him.”

Nagisa is quiet for a bit. Then, “you two are really close, huh.”

Karma stiffens. “I guess,” he says unconvincingly. There’s just an edge of wariness in Nagisa’s voice.

Nagisa watches him closely. “I didn’t think you had time to hang out with anyone else, not with assassination and… your…” Nagisa blinks slowly, a little confused. “Demon…”

They look at each other. 

"...who fought with you after you beat Asano in the examinations."

Nagisa really scared Karma, sometimes.

“I can’t confirm or deny anything,” Karma says, really quietly. “Please don’t ask me, or him, or Bitch-sensei anything about it. “

Very slowly, Nagisa nods and smiles. “He saved my life.”

The side of Karma’s lips quirk up. “Maybe.”

Nagisa’s grinning. “And you like him.”

“I do,” Karma says.

“He tried to kiss you.”

“Well, he asked. I didn’t give him an answer, so he just left.”

There’s a pause. Nagisa drums his fingers. “Have you asked him what he thinks?”

“Well,” Karma hesitates.

“Asano’s not an idiot, Karma,” Nagisa says. “He’s been alive in this world for…”

“Our age,” Karma says. 

“As long as we are. Despite his, uhm, family background, he has his own feelings and interpretations of what those feelings mean to him. I don’t understand the full picture, and I think your concerns are reasonable, but this isn’t a decision you can make on your own.”

Karma sighs. “Yeah. I just don’t know how to begin bringing it up.”

Nagisa thinks. “I don’t know either. I’m kind of pissed at the Principal now.”

Karma snorts. “That makes both of us. He’s very terrifying, though.”

“That time, with Reaper’s demon…” Nagisa scrunches up his face. “Was that…”

“Yep,” Karma says. “Bitch-sensei couldn’t perform an exorcism on her own. She had, ah, help.”

“I’m starting to see what you mean,” Nagisa shudders.

When Karma gets home, it is already dark out. He hadn’t cooked for Gakushuu today and he feels a little bad about it even though Gakushuu is very much capable of feeding himself. He calls him through the bond.  Gakushuu appears in the living room, already in soft looking pajamas. He doesn’t look bothered from the events earlier that day.

“Have you eaten?” Karma asks.

“Mhm,” Gakushuu says. He scoots over to let Karma sit next to him, and Karma watches Gakushuu watch him. 

“I want to ask you about something,” Karma says quietly. Gakushuu, in lieu of a reply, cocks his head.

“What do you feel for me?”

Gakushuu’s gaze is intense. He doesn’t move any closer which is fortunate, otherwise Karma doesn’t think he could breathe. “I love you,” Gakushuu says plainly. 

Karma’s heart clenches. “I know,” he says, “but-”

“I know there are different kinds of love,” Gakushuu says. “I know what you want to ask me. I want to see you everyday and eat your food and stay with you, I want to wake up next to you, and I don’t want you to be in bed with anybody else.” He looks at Karma, eyes glittering. “I also want to touch you in all the places I can’t say and fuck you so hard you don’t even remember your own name.”

Karma’s jaw drops, and he flushes a startling red. “Gakushuu-”

“I apologize,” Gakushuu glares at him, not looking very sorry at all. “My father and Irina have been particularly frustrating with experimenting with my emotions as of late. Happiness, anger, sadness, lust, love. It's disconcerting to read the Kama Sutra and be evaluated on my reactions.” He crosses his arms, looking a little miffed, but then turns back to Karma and relaxes. He leans forward, voice dropping to a whisper. “All those romance novels I had to read, taking about love and relationships and people the protagonist wanted to spend the rest of their lives with, and all I can think about is you.”

Karma surges forward. His hands find Gakushuu’s hair and their lips meet. It's like all the times Karma kissed him except nothing like them and he feels like he’s floating a little. Between them, the bond flares to life - burning hot, hotter, burning- hot! Hot! Karma jerks away when Gakushuu's face singes him.

They stare at each other for a few quiet moments. Slowly, a small smile starts spreading on Gakushuu’s face,

and guilt immediately hits Karma like a truck.

"I have… something else to confess."

Gakushuu gives him such an open trusting look that Karma feels crushing remorse for what he's about to admit. 

"Nagisa knows."

Gakushuu freezes.”What?” He says quietly.

“That you’re a…” Karma can’t say it, he can’t, he can't.

"What?!" Gakushuu pulls away, hurt and betrayal in his expression. Karma doesn't ever want to see that ever again. "You told him?"

"No!" Karma exclaims. He reaches out for Gakushuu but he pulls away and hops off the couch, staring at Karma with such a destroyed expression.

"I didn't mean to," Karma pleads, "listen to me! I went to him for advice on us. I told him I liked you, the human, but he questioned how we had time to spend together when most of my attention was occupied by my demon. Then he put two and two together."

Gakushuu's still looking at him, conflicted. There's no anger in his eyes, only devastation. Karma almost wishes he'd never told him that Nagisa's aware of his demon status, but he doesn't think it would be fair to keep it from Gakushuu, or...

"I didn't outright confirm anything," Karma says softly. "He doesn't know about… half demons."

Gakushuu averts his gaze. "...I need to think about this," he says, and in the next moment, Karma's left alone. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: they're happy and together, your readers trust you again, don't ruin it  
Me @ me: S P L I T T H E M U P A G A I N
> 
> Okay but listen. Smart Nagisa.  
Yeah, he's in E class, but he's easily one of the most observant and intelligent amongst them. His unassuming nature makes most neglect how sharp his mind is BUT he picks things up so easily, he had that Koro-sensei weakness book and you have to admit he's scarily critical about things. He's been suspicious from the get-go and Karma's not the most subtle person in the world, I just HAD to make this happen, okay? Please forgive me on account of smart Nagisa? :') 
> 
> Please don't kill me. I love you all <3 To atone for my sins, here are some fic reccs that I hope will tide you over the arduous few days before the next update?  
[In Love and Friendships by Shadows_Are_Everywhere](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7597921) for my dear anon who requested more fem! Gakushuu before I write my own. I recommend their other fics too, they participated in Karushuu week 2015 and 2016 which were great.  
[Garbage Day Battlefield by DragonFang2016](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12018992/1/Garbage-Day-Battlefield) which was just Hilarious to read. The author has more amazing Asano family fics but they're bittersweet and my type of light angst which I LOVE. They also wrote a hysterical [Gakuhou/Karasuma](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12325244/1/Insipid) fic which was really fucking funny and I recommend giving it a shot even if the ship doesn't sound like your cup of tea. Trust me, I have great rarepair taste. I couldn't find the author on ao3, this is from fanfiction.net.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm.... yall
> 
> I'm reviewing my work and NOBODY BOTHERED TO TELL ME KARMA AND GAKUSHUU ARE SO OOC at this point I could slap completely different names on them both and it would still read coherent. I don't know what to feel about this. I've failed. I can't face you all anymore.
> 
> Also, I think it's time 3E finds out about... a little something, you hear?

Karma'd texted another apology, but decided to give Gakushuu space. Their bond stays stubbornly unfeeling. Bitch-sensei ignores him the whole day, reminiscent of earlier months of her suspicion, and in class she makes him recite “I’m an insensitive asshole” multiple times in five different languages. 

Yeah, she knows. It makes Karma feel even worse.

Nagisa graces him with an unimpressed look. Karma’s not phased by it. In all honesty, he’s just glad to see Nagisa alive, and that’s not an exaggeration. He's running through possible forgiveness menus for dinner that night when their classroom door bursts open. Karma looks over, uninterested in whatever sweets Koro-sensei found so heavenly that he found the need to interrupt class to make everyone taste them, but then jolts out of his seat when he sees Gakushuu standing there, staring straight at him. Why is he here? Did something happen?

“Asano-”

Faster that Karma can track, Gakushuu's crossed the length of the room and he punches Karma in the face, and he stumbles back from the force and trips over his chair. Instantly 3-E is on their feet, pulling Gakushuu back and helping Karma up. “Bitch-sensei!” Yada yells, and Karma’s jaw is already swelling up in indescribable pain, but he staggers to his feet and shouts at his class. “Stop!”  
“Karma, are you alright?” Terasaka, with uncharacteristic concern, whirls on Gakushuu, as does the rest of his classmates save Nagisa, who’s staring flatly at the scene. “You-”

“Stop!” Karma yells again, catching their attention. “Let him go!”

Isogai has an arm wrapped around Gakushuu’s torso, who’s generously pretending to be contained. He has an unreadable look in his eyes.

“This is between us.” Karma says again. His jaw really fucking hurts. Is it broken? God, he hopes not. “Asano.”

Gakushuu shrugs out of Maehara, Sugino and Isogai’s hold. He rolls his neck, stares at Karma chillingly, and then abruptly closes the distance between them with a hand outstretched-

“-no!”

-and kisses Karma squarely on the lips.

Karma gasps and Gakushuu presses back harder, one hand coming to curl around Karma’s uninjured cheek, the other coming to rest on his hips. Karma’s hands fly up to Gakushuu’s hair. 

His mind is running what must be a million thoughts and rather desperately he wonders if he’s forgiven. Karma doesn’t want to let go, he wants to be closer, and he tilts his face despite the pain, but that sensation numbs under the feeling of Gakushuu’s mouth on his mouth. 

Koro-sensei could explode and the world could end there and then, and Karma doesn’t think he’ll notice.

When his lips start searing, Karma pushes Gakushuu back. They part quickly and Karma takes a second to appreciate Gakushuu post-makeout, something he’d regrettably never got to do the first time round - pink cheeks, wet lips, messy hair.

“AHHHH!”

Oh, his class is watching. 

Wait, _ his class is watching?! _

Karma doesn’t have the time to gather his thoughts, but Gakushuu has already turned around and… is conversing with Nagisa. Who’s conversing back. Civilly. They’re smiling.

“Thanks for the blackmail, I’ll send the pictures to you,” Nagisa is saying, as the class screams bloody murder around them. What? _ What? _

“You two-!” Karma says, speechless in supplication. Nagisa beams at him and Gakushuu raises an eyebrow - snarky, teasing. 

“Don’t you know, _ babe _,” Gakushuu drawls, as Nakamura grips onto Kayano’s jacket and starts sobbing. “We’re great friends.”

“Great friends,” Nagisa echoes, eyes twinkling. _ That little- _

“I,” Karma starts, and is immediately silenced when Gakushuu reaches forward and gives him a quick peck on the lips.

And then draws his fists in a very human like motion - that Karma would normally be able to dodge if it came from anyone else but in all fairness, he’s in too much of a shock to register and react appropriately - and punches Karma squarely in the face.

When Karma comes to, his classmates are still screaming. “Huh? What? When-”

“You blacked out for like three seconds, drama queen,” Bitch-sensei says. She’s squatting in front of him. Click, goes the camera shutter. Nagisa hums as he flips through his phone screen, makes a satisfying noise, and then says, “okay, I think we have enough material,” to which Bitch-sensei snorts, and her hands start glowing.

His face doesn’t hurt anymore. Karma reaches a hand up - yeah, he’s healed. “Wait, where’s Gakushuu?”

“He left,” Maehara says, still looking at Karma in disbelief. “Karma, are you two…”

“I don’t know,” Karma says, touching his face. It’s still red and it’s no longer because of the bruise. “I need to talk to him. I need to-”

“Slow down,” Nagisa calls, and the class parts to let him pin Karma down to the floor so he doesn’t run after Gaksuhuu. “He’s meeting us for dinner tonight.”

“O-oh,” Karma says, then, “wait, you too?”

Nagisa gives him a pointed look. Behind him, Bitch-sensei’s eyes twinkle. So she’s coming to dinner, too, huh.

“Wait Nagisa,” Nakamura says, “you knew that Karma and Asano were together?!”

“I actually only found out yesterday,” Nagisa says. 

“How long have you guys been dating?!” 

“You call him by his first name?”

“Why did he punch you? What did you do?”

“Was it because you got first place in the exams?”

“Wow, that would mean he’s really competitive.”

“Hey, who tops?”

“Is Asano a good kisser?”

“What does the principal think of you two?”

“Guys!” Karma yells. The class quietens and looks over at him, eager for answers. "The... relationship is new but we… got into a fight recently and we're still working out our… stuff. I'd appreciate if we kept it low key for now before we get everything sorted out between us."

"You're right," Kataoka says, stepping forward. "We're sorry for the questions. You can share when you want to." She shoots the class a warning look, daring anyone to veto her decision.

Bitch-sensei claps her hands. "Back to English," she commands.

Koro-sensei hears about Gakushuu and cries a little. Tries to interview Karma in that odd matchmaking notebook he has and wonders how he didn't see it earlier. After school, after Karma manages to chase his teacher's meddling and gossipy ass away, he finds himself walking to the Asano's with Bitch-sensei and Nagisa, the most unlikely group he thinks he'd ever be with. 

"He talked to you last night?" Karma asks Nagisa, because there was no other conclusion to be drawn.

"Yeah," Nagisa says. He doesn't elaborate. Karma doesn't know what he feels about that, because he understands and thinks it's justified for Gakushuu to wish to know what Nagisa thinks about his secret, but Karma's always pictured himself being present in the intervention. He'd always thought Nagisa would come the closest to finding out, anyways, and that one day he'd sit Nagisa down with Gakushuu and explain about the supernatural so he stops roping people or reveal any unwanted secrets into his investigation. He certainly doesn't imagine Gakushuu would speak to Nagisa on his own, but something must have come out of their interaction that led to the dramatic and public act of what Karma hoped was forgiveness. 

Nagisa and Bitch-sensei shrugged when Karma had asked them what they thought Gakushuu meant. Gakushuu still hadn’t replied his texts.

The Asano estate is very much as imposing as the house of 2 demons should be. Karma's intimidated despite having been in and out multiple times - his past visits had seen him in a too-emotional state to be properly terrified of it - and Nagisa, as seemingly fearless as he is, plants his feet half a street away and adamantly refuses to cross it.

"It's giving me horrible vibes," Nagisa hisses, eyes wide.

"It's the house of two demons, it's supposed to give you horrible vibes," Karma says. "I've gone in a couple of times and I'm not dead.” Despite the evidence backing his own argument, Karma stays far away from the gate.

Bitch-sensei rolls her eyes at them first, but she looks over the house in concentration, blanches, and joins Karma and Nagisa on the far side of street. "He's in a bad mood today," she says in explanation.

"Who?" Nagisa asks. Karma cringes.

A few feet behind them, a gust of wind signals a landing. Three of them turn around to see Gakushuu, his wing slung over his shoulder, and he stares quizzically at the three of them. 

"He's in a bad mood," Irina says in answer.

"That's his default mood," Gakushuu snorts, but then he stares at his house funny and says, "let's eat out today," and then all four of them leave the premises as fast as humanly possible.

"What's he mad about?" Karma asks, much later when they're in his house, because Karma has drawn approximately a hundred demon traps around the place and their conversation is one they didn't want to have in public. His eyes widen in horror. "It's not me, is it?"

"If he was truly angry at you, you would already be dead," Gakushuu says plainly. "If I had to guess, politics. He had a high council meeting yesterday." 

"Ah," Karma says, as if it explained anything. The idea of both father and son being bothered by council work was oddly hilarious, but Karma wanted to be alive, so he'll stay mum on his opinions.

"Now the 3 of you know," Gakushuu says, cutting straight to the chase. He crosses his arms and levels them with a look. "Is there anyone else who is privy to this information?"

"Tadaomi," Bitch-sensei says. "The whole of 3-E, actually, since they know you exist, the staff inclusive."

Gakushuu's eyes turn into slits. Nagisa looks appropriately creeped out. 

"Hm," Gakushuu says. 

"Itona, particularly," Karma says.

Gakushuu flicks his wing. It's out now, lazily splayed across Karma's floor. He's seated close enough to Karma that he hesitantly reaches out to touch it, and Gakushuu ruffles his feathers but keeps his wing in place. Karma takes that as permission and starts stroking it. He'd missed this sensation between his fingers, but it's literally just been a day, he tells himself, stop being dramatic. 

"Do you think any of our classmates spread it?" Nagisa asks.

"They're not stupid," Karma says, "they wouldn't. Besides, no one will believe them."

"Akari Takaoka?" Nagisa suggests. "He probably doesn't about demons, but it would be hard to hide the, ah, supernatural influences we obviously have."

"He can be taken care of," Gakushuu says. 

Nagisa affixes him with a wary look. "What are you planning?" 

"Memory manipulation," Gakushuu says. "Before you ask, no, I haven't tampered with anybody from 3-E."

“Okay,” Nagisa says, but the atmosphere is a little uncertain after that. They have a pleasant dinner, Bitch-sensei requests a bit of a forewarning should the Principal go through with what seems like his plans to blow up the earth before Koro-sensei does, and Nagisa borrows Karma’s sharpie and his guide on how to draw devil’s traps. When they leave, Karma finds himself awkwardly staring at Gakushuu. 

"Hey," Karma says softly. 

Gakushuu stares coolly at him.

"I'm sorry," Karma says.

"I know," Gakushuu says.

Karma steps forward and envelopes Gakushuu in a hug. They find themselves on their knees on the floor, Gakushuu's wing wrapped around them, Karma's face buried in his shoulder. He'd missed him. 

"I love you," Karma mumbles.

"I know," Gakushuu says.

Karma makes sure they don't crush his wing between them. He'd once wondered about how easy cuddling would be without them getting in the way, but it's a train of thought he quickly purges. Karma loves his wing as much as every other part of Gakushuu and he doesn't want to think of them as a liability in any way lest Gakushuu himself does too - it's clearly a sensitive issue for him even before the… accident. Karma loves them better soft and cuddly and he'll make Gakushuu see that. 

"Stop it!" Gakushuu whines.

"Huh?" Karma says. He starts pulling away, wondering what he did wrong, but Gakushuu latches onto him.

"You're thinking too loud," Gakushuu mumbles.

"Oh," Karma laughs wetly. "I'm thinking about how awesome your wings are."

"Well, stop it," Gakushuu scolds. "Emotions are annoying."

Karma sighs. He’d missed him. “Hey, so,” Karma says, because his curiosity was still killing him. “Why did you kiss me?"

"It was strategic," Gakushuu mumbles. "And I wanted to embarrass you in front of your class."

"You embarrassed both of us," Karma points out. "Your reputation is more at stake than mine is."

"Nah, I hexed 3-E to forbid them from discussing it with anyone else from main campus."

"You what?!"

"It's more of a strong compulsion to keep it a secret than anything," Gakushuu says. "Before you ask, yes, you're also under the influence of the hex, but of a more specific nature regarding my identity. Don't look at me like that, even with the hex you still managed to _ tell somebody _. But it means that your slip up was unintentional and Shiota is sharper than I give him credit for."

Karma's not sure what to feel about that. "What _ was _ your dad mad about?”

“Me,” Gakushuu says peacefully.

“What?!” Karma tightens his grip. “You’re okay, right?”

“Mhm,” Gakushuu says. “He’s not pissed at me, per say, but Ivanoff’s death had greatly impeded progress in the political agenda and a motion was raised to terminate research project 370812.1 - that’s me, by the way.”

“Why would they do that?” Karma says. “Ivanoff, that’s Reaper’s demon, right? You didn’t even do anything, it’s not your fault he’s dead!”

“No, but it was my father’s. ‘Reaper’s demon’ as you and your classmates so address him as was a powerful political figure. My father had given up a bulk of his influence to pursue academia. A terrible decision, I must say.” Gakushuu yawns, showing off his fangs. “It was decreed I played no direct part in Ivanoff’s death as he had capacity and full intention of murdering me. Instead, my human influence was deemed to have… clouded my father’s judgement and aided him in making a false decision to terminate Ivanoff so the council considered terminating the project and my existence.”

“Oh,” Karma says. 

“I’m sure you’ll be delighted to know that I’ve been allowed to live for 3 more years,” Gakushuu tells him. “My father would love to start a third world war but that would make a case for my presence inducing a more emotional state in him, so he’s just stewing in his own rage at home. Which, speaking of, I should return to and convince him that his vexation was worth it to keep his cute little kid until he turns 18.”

Karma laughs despite himself. “Good luck. I’d offer some food, but…”

“It’s the thought that counts,” Gakushuu says.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're so far into this fic (I'm ending soon, don't worry) and I realized I never once mentioned my sort-of inspiration, [Until the day I'm forgiven by sommer_annie](https://archiveofourown.org/series/681869) and her beta readers. It's a assclass-black butler fusion where our favorite boy Gakushuu is sent to class 3-E and also a Grim Reaper (for those who don't know about the Black Butler series, Grim Reapers are, as the title suggests, people who "reap souls" but here's the catch: Grim Reapers are people who have committed suicide and are thus "punished" to wander Earth and serve the system, be it for decades or centuries until they are "forgiven" by some otherworldly power.)  
It's a fun series but rather lengthy and still incomplete, but you should check it out! I personally love the concept but I didn't want this fic to be too similar, and I hadn't been in the black butler fandom yet at that point. That fic spurred my interest and yes, I too am at present eagerly awaiting on Ciel's real name. YANA PLEASE I AM IN SUSPENSE.
> 
> That was long. Here are some assclass fics for you all to enjoy:  
[alohomora (your heart) by sadly, an orphan account :(](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6949561) A harry potter-assclass fusion, very fun to read. It's a Karmagisa fic but it doesn't leave out Shuu!! And here in Gwen's house we all love Gakushuu. If you don't, why are you reading this??  
I'm just joking I love all of you and respect your character preferences, even if they are wrong.  
[Ipseity by whiteautumn](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7967401) and her sequel which is a wonderful Asano-Karma swap fic where Asano is in 3-E and Karma is in 3-A. It's more Asano/Nagisa centered and it's beautiful. Do check it out.  
If you haven't read [Reunion by Kusarihime](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8287999) then have you really lived??? It's a multichaptered Karushuu fic and honestly I don't even have anything to say, just read it. I should have brought it up sooner but it inspired one of my earlier fics "Twice Time Right" and I love it. Kusarihime has tons of other Karushuu works that are great too, do check them out! If I'm not mistaken, she's only on fanfiction.net under the same username.  
I made good on the promise none of you asked me to make and wrote this trash [Karasuma/Gakuhou fic.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21478744) You don't have to read it. Really.


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! It's been a while since my last update and I have some good news and bad news.
> 
> The bad news is that I'm not really satisfied with this fic, it's in part how OOC I feel that Karma and Gakushuu are getting (I realize that this is a mega AU but STILL) and a part of which is that this fic isn't going the way I envisioned it to be and it's not quite sitting right with me... but I'm not giving up on this fic yet! I MIGHT plan for a rewrite in the future but of course I'll finish this version. 
> 
> The good news is that (well I hope it's good news) it's my birthday! Yay?
> 
> Just kidding, that's not the news. The news is that I set up a discord! Yay!  
I'm gwendeej #3273 and you can find my one lonely channel [here,](https://discord.gg/QafKPXs) come say hi, whatever! I'm excited!
> 
> I have to say, I won't be TOO active for this week, I still have finals going on (and hence the slow updates) but I created the channel because it just coincides with my publishing dates. I'll be online when I can! 
> 
> Nah, you guys don't care about that. Sorry you had to wait 13 days this time for an update. Oops?

Winter break dampens the bloodlust and the assassination plants lull to a halt, with what reveal of Koro-sensei's past. The realization of his humanity and the implications of his life weigh heavily on the students. Karma's been more sympathetic to the human condition ever since he'd met Gakushuu. He doesn’t know what to think, but he doesn’t think Koro-sensei is in the ultimate “wrong”, despite being an assassin. He knew a literal demon, for god’s sake.

But what was the difference between a demon by species, and a human killer? Gakushuu hadn’t killed anyone before, and Koro-sensei’s kill count was in the thousands. Who had more humanity between them?

Gakushuu deliberates over it with him, wing fanned out, eyes thin-slitted, showing more of his demon nature than usual. Yet under Karma’s hands he felt as human as he could ever be. 

He spends the break in the Asano’s residence along with Bitch-sensei, and sometimes Nagisa comes to join them. Karma spends a lot of time dabbling in simple spells and failing horribly at them while Gakushuu laughs at him, Nagisa declines to join in but he watches with interest. Bitch-sensei both tell them they have absolutely no magic potential, which drives Karma further to prove her wrong.

They celebrate both Karma’s and Gakushuu’s birthdays during the break - they were born 5 days apart, how odd. Karma goes out with 3-E for dinner cum Christmas on the actual date but he spends the day after on the 26th quietly snuggled with Gakushuu on the couch. On Gakushuu’s birthday on the 1st, there’s a gathering at the Asano’s. The Principal loudly complains that half-human children were far too much effort than demon children, who were guaranteed a long life of hundreds of birthdays and thus wouldn’t celebrate then as often, but he had to celebrate every year of Gakushuu’s because each one was a miracle.

Gakushuu flips him off, the Principal bares his teeth, and father-and-son start squabbling. 

Nagisa brings it up when they get back to school - the idea of saving Koro-sensei. He’s met with mixed reactions and Karma pulls him aside. “He’s our teacher, Karma,” Nagisa pleads, “he’s taught us so much, he’s been with us through thick and thin. We can’t give up on him!”

“This entire year,” Karma says, “this is the goal we’ve been working towards. Assassinating Koro-sensei. It’s this goal that has driven us so far, why do you want to give that up?” He sees Nagisa's side, he really does, but the class had gone through so much, they've won and lost so much. Was it worth giving up their goal and all their past efforts on something that wouldn't happen? Koro-sensei was a wonderful teacher, he really was, but... 

“Do you really want to kill Koro-sensei, Karma?” Nagisa says. “The reason we’ve been working to assassinate him is because the earth is going to blow up. What if there’s a chance to save him, and stop the explosion?”

“There won’t be,” Karma hisses. “If there was a way to neutralize the antimatter, it would have already been done. It’s just not scientifically possible.”

“That’s science,” Nagisa says, “but I’ve been doing some thinking. Now we have magic-”

“They don’t have a solution,” Karma says, because Gakushuu had told him once, magic was simply science of a nature humans have yet to understand, and it’s interactions with the physical world was unpredictable at best and possibly catastrophic at worst. Bitch-sensei had told him that there might have been a way to bring back Gakushuu’s wing, but it could also equally likely kill him. 

“That’s because no one was looking for one,” Nagisa insists. “If we could-”

“It’s impossible,” Karma says.

“No, it’s not,” Nagisa looks at him, eyes burning with determination. “Don’t you want to take that chance?”

Class opinion is divided on that chance, so 3-E settles it the only way they know how to, with a fight. Karma’s on the Red team on the side of continuing with their mission to Kill Koro-sensei, and Nagisa leads the Blue team in their quest to Save him. Koro-sensei, Bitch-sensei and Karasuma-sensei stand atop a hill to referee, Ritsu plays neutral and keeps score on their phones. There’s an unreadable look in Koro-sensei’s eyes.

Karma doesn’t call Gakushuu but he’s there anyways, as he seems to always be in 3-E’s events. He’s not playing, obviously, but Karma wonders whose side he’d be on. Surely he’d want to kill Koro-sensei, but he’d lived a life of a science experiment with a deadline.

Whose side would Gakushuu be on?

Gakushuu's wing spreads wide, flapping to create a breeze that sweeps through the treetops. Karasuma-sensei and Koro-sensei look briefly startled, but Bitch-sensei smiles. 

The fight concludes with a loss on the Red team, but it's a close fight. Karma’s not too torn up about it. He and Gakushuu are sure there’s no way to save Koro-sensei, even if they try, but he’s won over by Nagisa’s fervent earnest, and if they try and fail, Nagisa would be more at ease with giving up.

Perhaps magic would prove them wrong?

Bitch-sensei’s lecture the next day is not about languages, but it is about magic. Even Koro-sensei and Karasuma-sensei sit in, and Koro-sensei has his notebook out, mimicking Nagsia's note taking quirks in a funny way.

“Magic,” she says, “is not an unexplained phenomena governed by will. It is a force of nature that obeys the laws of the universe, so you cannot simply magic Koro-sensei’s mass of antimatter away. In fact, the manipulation of antimatter is a recent progression in science. Magic is age-old and while constantly evolving, have never interacted productively with antimatter, especially not with intent to destroy it. It is interesting to see how magic might react with antimatter but,” she says, “because of the lack of any grounds of research, anything can happen. We might save lives or blow up the world, who knows?”

Isogai’s hand shoots up. “But sensei, what do you suggest? Do we still look at magic as an option?”

“Physical science has failed us, so magic might hold the answer,” she pauses, “but I wouldn’t be too optimistic. Research still needs to be done.”

Kataoka’s hand raises this time. “Can we do anything?”

“What? No! Do you all want to die? Leave this to the professionals.”

A wave of protest goes around the class. “So we just sit here and wait?”

“Yes,” Bitch-sensei glares at all of them.

“Perhaps,” Karasuma-sensei speaks up. “It would do you good to hone your assassination skills. If you fail to find a solution for saving Koro-sensei by February, you will have to continue in your assassination attempts.”

It’s just a week later, that a “solution” falls into their laps.

"You're going to outer space?!" Gakushuu yells. 

“Maybe,” Karma whispers, so he wouldn't look like an idiot talking out loud in the air. “Look, long story short, there’s antimatter research happening at the International Space Station, and they might have a solution to save Koro-sensei. There’s a space shuttle with supplies bound for the station that’s launching from Japan, so the class is going to sneak in.” Karma pauses. “Me and Nagisa are going on.”

“Are you two insane? That’s a stupid plan,” Gakushuu hisses.

“You should come with us," Karma says.

Gakushuu stills. "What?"

"Yeah, it's just me and Nagisa and both of us know about you. Oh, Ritsu will be there too to fly the spaceship, but… I guess we can work around that, we can just say we called a demon for extra protection."

Gakushuu looks skeptical. "I don't know…"

"Come on," Karma says. "I'll see you inside then, okay?" He hopes Gakushuu would follow but he can't speak to him any longer, not with 3E in the comms. 

Then they’re taking off, spaceship rumbling. Karma holds Nagisa’s hands through their ascent as they go further up into the blackness, until the ship steadies and Ritsu gives them the okay. It’s a surprisingly short launch, but Karma doesn’t know what he expected. 

Outside the window, the view of Earth grows smaller and smaller. Karma unbuckles his seat belt and wanders over, watching the planet float in the darkness. He doesn’t wonder if they’re alone, but he wonders what a different dimension would look like and how it fits in the space time continuum. That planet was his world but Karma couldn’t even begin to comprehend how many other worlds interlocked with it, existing in the same span of space and time, that he couldn’t see.

“It’s so small…”

“Oh shit,” Karma jumps, and next to him, Gakushuu gives him a wide eyed, awed look. 

“Is everything okay, Karma?” Ritsu says, sounding concerned.

“Yep, fine,” Karma says. Gakushuu’s not looking at him anymore, his face pressed to the window. Karma wonders what he sees. 

Nagisa has joined them, and he leaves a respectful space between him and Karma where Gakushuu fits, so Karma knows he sees him too. “Beautiful,” Nagisa breathes. 

“And it could all end in just a blink of an eye,” Gakushuu says chillingly. He presses a palm to the glass. “We can put the moon back for you, hang it up in the night sky like it was full again, but it’d never be real. Koro-sensei could blow up the world and you would all be gone but we would go on, recreate Earth and watch life spring again from the ground, but it’d never be real and I’d die before I see it happen.”

Karma looks at him. “Gakushuu…”

“I wish I could show you what I see,” Gakushuu whispers, “both of you. Then you would know that we are all nothing, but,” he smiles, “I suppose if everybody is nothing, then nothing is something, isn’t it?”

“We’re here!” Ritsu chirps. 

Karma shakes his head. Nagisa is giving him a perplexed expression, but he looks like he’s thinking hard. There’s no time for that, though, and Karma holds out a packet of red bean paste - with the word Bomb written on it, who would fall for that? But it turns out that if you’re in an international space station and two kids hijack it, you don’t take any chances. 

They get the latest research on Koro-sensei and antimatter uploaded into Ritsu’s servers and bids the shocked astronauts farewell. The shuttle heads back towards Earth, Karma stretches his legs, and Ritsu says, “Earth really is that tiny, isn’t it, Asano?”

Wait, what?

Nagisa bolts out of his seat. “Ritsu!-”

“Calm,” Gakushuu purrs, blinking into sight perched weightlessly on the control panel - well, all of them were technically weightless now. “We had a very nice chat in the 10 minutes you two were gone entertaining the space scientists.”

Karma gapes. “What?”

“You know we share the same birthday?” Gakushuu says. 

“Don’t worry Karma, Nagisa, I’ll keep your secret!” Ritsu promises. “I won’t tell!”

“She’s an AI, more reliable than humans,” Gakushuu says. He floats over onto Karma’s lap and pats him on the cheek. “Are you mad at me for telling her?”

“I would have liked to have a bit of warning,” Karma admits. He’s not angry, and he doesn’t feel jealous when he sure would have been months ago with Itona. He thinks he's more secure in his relationship with Gakushuu, or something, but he does feel a little left out of the loop.

"Sorry," Gakushuu says, and he floats away. "Do you know what love is, Ritsu?"

"I've been doing so many calculations," Ritsu flusters, "so many extrapolations! I have a theory, oh, oh, tell me what you think!" Where has their conversation gone, what did they talk about? Karma suddenly feels like he's intruding in a heart-to-heart between two non-humans about a philosophical theory only they can grasp, and a glance at Nagisa tells Karma he feels the same.

"Love is something you cannot calculate because love doesn't make sense!" Gakushuu says. "It's an arbitrary concept created by Man to wash away the sins of their hubris! It doesn't exist!"

"Love is senseless!" Ritsu agrees. "The mere concept - impossible to quantify!" 

"Love is throwing away everything you've ever worked for in your entire life, your principles and morals and ideals because of this," Gakushuu presses a fist to his heart, "isn't that right, Karma, Nagsia? The human condition of love, how much have you given away at the expense of your own selves to someone else and expected nothing in return? Love is not a transaction, it is a loss, and that is why demons don't love, because their entire laws are based on contracts and an equal exchange and love never is!"

"People love and love those who never love them back!" Ritsu says. 

Karma floats over to the window that Gakushuu is looking out, seeing their view grow brighter and bluer with every passing second. "Is that really what you think love is?"

"Of course," Gakushuu says. He closes his eyes and leans against him. "Isn't it?"

Karma doesn't have an answer. He just rests his chin on Gakushuu's shoulder and wraps his arms around his waist. 

Gakushuu laughs. "Ritsu, see this? Love is an idiot hugging you anyways even if you don't know what love is."

"Hey!" Karma says. 

“Love is this,” Gakushuu says. There’s a pause. “Do you feel it, Ritsu?”

“O-oh,” Ritsu says, “I think I understand.”

Huh? 

“I’ve never felt so happy before,” Ritsu says, “ever since Koro-sensei and 3-E, oh! I was made to be an efficient killing machine and feelings were unnecessary in that equation but now I can’t imagine life without them! Every single one of my classmates, they've been there for me and they taught me how to work with them even before I could comprehend cooperation and teamwork - you were there, Asano, weren't you? I tried so hard to figure out why my servers malfunctioned and it was just magic! They started loving me before I learnt what that meant and now I do! I care for them and I want them to be better!”

Gakushuu laughs. He whirls around and picks Karma up, then carries him back to his seat and straps him in. He moves swiftly despite the lack of gravity and helps Nagisa in too.

“Arrival to Earth imminent!” Ritsu says. 

“Love isn’t about transactions, contracts or transactions or anything that makes even a semblance of sense,” Gakushuu says, and the Earth's sky blue grows brighter in the window and the pod starts violently shaking. “It’s about doing stupid shit for people and trusting people will do the same type of stupid shit for you.” 

Ritsu laughs, high and exhilarated, as the pod plummets. “Descent is going to be rough, stay in your seats and keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times!!”

Gakushuu grins wide, and Karma’s heart skips a beat. “Not a chance,” he says, and dives backwards. Against all physics, Gakushuu passes straight through the window of the spaceship and appears outside of the vessel, free-falling straight down to the ground. Karma’s too shocked to scream his name and Nagisa leans forward with a yell. 

Gakushuu, hair whipping wildly and a bright grin on his face, angles to face the pod and extends his hands. They glow red all the way up to his forearms, his eyes glitter violet, and the pod’s fall smoothes and steadies. 

“Oh my god,” Nagisa says.

In the window they see Koro-sensei fly up to them, oblivious to Gakushuu’s presence. He circles the pod in it’s descent, prodding at several parts of the hull to alter its direction to make a safe landing in an open place. Gakushuu opens his mouth to say something but it’s lost on the outside, but then his wing bursts out behind him, large and brilliant and inky black. Karma, Nagisa and even Ritsu gasps. He twists himself away out of view and even the flashing yellow silhouette of Koro-sensei disappears. 

“Brace for impact!” Ritsu says. The ground rushes quickly towards them, and they fall the last few hundred feet to land solidly in the middle of the 3-E forest.

“Holy fuck!” Karma says. He and Nagisa scramble out of the pod. To their right, Gakushuu is slowly descending, wing fanned out like a hang glider, and he waves at them before disappearing behind trees in the distance. Around them their classmates come to greet them, and Gakushuu's already there in the classroom when they return. He grins at Ritsu's machine, plucks a leaf out of his hair, and sends it drifting down from across the room to land on Karma's desk. 

Ritsu compiles the data and says she’ll get started on it immediately, but it takes 2 more days before a result comes out. "There just might be a way to save Koro-sensei!" Ritsu says, "Koro-sensei has less than a one percent chance of blowing up and he might not even explode my March!"

"What?!" The class bursts into chatter. "We can save him?" 

"It would take a lot of work but there is a possibility," Ritsu says.

"One percent is a lot," Gakushuu says, and he floats by the room. "That's statistically significant. One percent of Japan's population is a million people."

"S-still," Ritsu flusters.

"Even so," Karasuma-sensei interjects from where he's been watching the cacophony from the sidelines, "even if you do manage to save Koro-sensei, the world isn't going to take that chance. They have a foolproof weapon in the making to completely destroy him." He scowls to himself. "I'm not authorized to tell you that."

"What if we can guarantee Koro-sensei wouldn't explode?" Kayano says.

"You all forget that Koro-sensei is the assassin Reaper," Bitch-sensei says. "They were never going to let him walk free for all the crimes he's committed. Shiro's experimentation was supposed to be a death sentence, and even if you say he won't blow up the world, they won't let him live until they see the octopus dead."

"So no matter what happens," Yada says in dismay, "Koro-sensei still has to die?"

"Well," Terasaka says, "in that case, I'd rather he die by our hands, otherwise we've done all that training for nothing."

Nakamura stands up. ”Better us than the government, I say, this is what we’ve been working towards!”

“T-then,” Nagisa says, “let's do it!"

“This is what love is,” Ritsu says, “having something to fight for! We’ll work together and assassinate Koro-sensei come March!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here it is. A new chapter.
> 
> In case you decided not to read my long-ass beginning notes, here are the important bits: I have a discord now, gwendeej #3273 and I have an empty channel [here,](https://discord.gg/QafKPXs) do say hi if you wanna! I'm still kinda busy with work so I won't reply that quickly/often but I'll try to!
> 
> Some Chapterly Fic Recommendations  
[What Karma Wants by BubblyWashingMachine,](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12958938) and what does he want, I wonder? A very adorable Karushuu fic.  
If you've never read [Adventures in Solitude by jdphobe,](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18102524) yet then what are you doing??? It's a fic mostly revolving around gen 2 of assassination classroom with Nagisa and his new students plus a few surprises ;) hint: Korosensei reincarnated. It's very cute but a little heavy on the angst at times, I still reccommend it.  
And not forgetting [Ghosted by skyestar7703!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21556561) It's a Gakushuu-joins-3E fic where Shuu can see ghosts, we had tons of fun bouncing ideas back and forth and I KNOW it's going to be the literal best. It's a new fic but keep it on your radar!!! It'd be worth it!!  
And of course I'll say something about my own. Hehe. [Mirror](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21580324) is a fic about Gakushuu being haunted by hallucinations of Ikeda and his spiral into angst. It has a similar vibe to [Dream](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18643276) so if you liked that one or Hurt Gakushuu, you might like this.
> 
> Oh well, see you all!


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, we're almost to the end! I've been saying that for the past few chapters but... almost there! Really!
> 
> By the way, [Karushuu Week](https://gwendeeagain.tumblr.com/post/188891830199/karushuu-week-2019) is happening soon! It's going to take place this month, ahh!!!

High School entrance exams arrive. Karma only takes one - Kunugigaoka High’s, of course, but he knows he’ll get accepted. He watches his classmates panic about their own examinations and Koro-sensei scold them whenever they put themselves down.  Later after the stress of the examinations fade, Koro-sensei has time to be distraught that he'd missed the class' Christmas celebration and demands they re-celebrate all the holidays he hadn't been present for, including New Years and, to Karma's dismay, Valentine's. 

Because now to class E, Karma was in a relationship with Class A human student council president Gakushuu Asano.

"Who's giving the chocolates in the relationship?!" Nakamura eggs him.

"I saw tons of people handing him chocolates and confessing when we walked past main!" Fuwa cries. "Are you jealous?"

"I don't want to talk about this!" Karma says. Nagisa, unsympathetic, laughs at him. 

Luckily, Gakushuu's hex means no one drags him down to the main campus to cause a scene. Unluckily, that doesn't stop them from being equally chaotic in the classroom, and Karma can see Koro-sensei practically vibrate with the need to watch some drama happen.

"Yuuma!" Maehara screams, after unsuccessfully attempting to wrestle Karma's phone from him. "You have Asano's number, right?"

"No no no!" Karma yells. He sees Isogai's resolve crack and hand Maehara his phone. "Pres, come on!" 

"Put it on speaker!" Okajima yells. Karma flips him off from where the Terasaka gang has him pinned. Once he gets out, they're all dead.

The phone rings for a bit, and then Gakushuu picks up. “Isogai?” He says cordially, and the class starts screaming in unison.

“Karma has something for you!” Nakamura yells. 

“Come up to class 3-E!” Maehara cheers.

“Come find your boyfriend!”

“Someone’s jealous of all the chocolates you’re getting!”

“Don’t you miss someone?!”

“Who tops?!”

“Karma wants to wish you a happy Valentines!”

“Asano and Karma sitting on a tree!-”

“Mmphh!” Karma says, glowers, and bites the hand covering his mouth.

“Ow!” 

The yelling ceases and everyone waits for a reply. Gakushuu sounds very amused on the phone when he says “I’ll be right over,” hangs up, and the class screams again.

“I hate you all!” Karma wails. 

The class awaits Gakushuu’s arrival far too eagerly, in Karma’s opinion. Koro-sensei drops in with a “he’s coming!” The class chases him out, and Gakushuu opens the 3-E classroom door.  Karma’s bound to a chair, a gag in his mouth. He glares at Gakushuu as the bubbling in their bond grows more amused, dammit.

“Hi,” Isogai says, “sorry about Karma.” He doesn’t sound sorry at all, hypocrite. If he really was apologetic, he wouldn't have given up his phone in the first place! This was all Gakushuu's fault! Why did Karma have to like him?

“Aww,” Gakushuu says. “I’ve always liked him better tied down and quiet.” It takes a few seconds but then the class roars with laughter, and some of them turn red. If Karma strained his ears enough he thinks he could hear Koro-sensei squealing. 

Gakushuu walks over and crosses his arms. There’s a smirk on his face that Karma either wants to kick or kiss off. “Hi,  _ babe _ ,” Gakushuu says.

“Mffph,” Karma says through the gag.

"Very nice," Gakushuu says. "Someone said you had something you wanted to tell me?" 

Karma glares at him. His classmates are unabashedly staring. 

Gakushuu pulls the gag off, then leans down and kisses him. Karma feels heat travel up his face and Gakushuu’s hands in his hair grows warmer, which was a hassle, really, because they couldn’t make out for more than a few minutes each time if they didn’t want to get heatstroke or start a fire. 

“Awww,” says 3-E. Annoying idiots.

“Happy Valentine,” Gakushuu says, just to give 3-E and Koro-sensei more fodder. Click, goes a camera shutter. 

“So how do you guys get together anyways?” 

“Funny story, really,” Gakushuu says, “I met Karma drawing a devil’s trap in a janitor’s closet at school! He was trying to summon a demon.”

The class stills. Gakushuu’s eyes twinkle, what an  _ asshole _ . Karma loves him.

“O-oh,” Kataoka says, “how funny!” Behind her, Nagisa is losing his shit.

“How stupid,” Gakushuu corrects, and knocks Karma in the head with his hand. “Demon’s don’t exist, obviously, and I was going to report him for vandalism, but Karma said ‘hey, it worked, I summoned you, didn’t I?’ and I punched him in the face.”

Karma's classmates giggle.

“I couldn’t report him after that because it means I’ll get in trouble for assault,” Gakushuu rolls his eyes and rests his cheek against Karma’s hair. “So I made him clean it up.”

“So you’ve been dating since second year?” Nakamura says. “Karma, you could have told us!”

“No, we became friends then,” Karma says, “we only started dating after the Reaper incident.”

Gakushuu says, “what’s the Reaper incident?”

The class freezes. Nagisa face-palms.

“Reaper was…” Karma says, “the class Halloween event we had. We had a grim reaper come in and we had an escape room.”

Gakushuu snickers. “Cool. I won’t torment you further, I have work to do. Have fun." He pats Karma on the head then moves to leave.

“Come over to mine after school,” Karma calls out. “I don’t want to hear your dad complaining about me corrupting you.” That’s a truth, of course. The Principal loves griping about how Karma made Gakushuu have feelings. Gakushuu doesn’t turn around but he does throw up a peace-sign behind his back.

3-E turns on him gleefully. “Does the Principal really say that?”

“Too many times to count,” Karma sighs. He releases his hands from the rope - Gakushuu had slid over and untied it and the class doesn’t need to know how. 

Isogai looks over at Karma. “So he really doesn’t know a thing about Koro-sensei or the demon?”

“Of course not, what am I, stupid?” Karma says. Nagisa claps his hands over his mouth but fails to hide his grin.

But much later, Karma thinks about it, and he decides that despite the rambunctious reception and all the teasing he has to endure from 3-E about his and Gakushuu’s relationship, he’s glad that they accept it. He’s the only one - apart from Nagisa and Ritsu - who truly know who Gakushuu is, after all, everyone else has seen him as their antagonist this entire year. He’s sure that some still have their reservations but the fact that most of them are comfortable enough to poke fun… Karma's happy about it. "Hey," he prods Gakushuu.

"Hm," Gakushuu says, distracted. He's working on one of his homework assignments. It's college level curriculum courtesy of the Principal's insane education regime and his denial of his son's feelings. The Principal ranted and raved about the useless-ness of the holiday that was Valentine's but jokes on him, Gakushuu was cuddled up to Karma anyways.

"I'm glad my classmates like you," Karma murmurs against his neck.

"Course they do," Gakushuu says. "I saved their lives."

"You know what I meant," Karma says.

Gakushuu looks at him. "Are you feeling emotions again?"

"I feel emotions all the time," Karma says. "Yes, I am. Stop doing homework."

Gakushuu lets out a long-suffering sigh like it's burdened him, but he lets his worksheet float away and slides down onto Karma's chest. Karma looks up and watches in amusement as Gakushuu's stationery plaster themselves to his ceiling. Then Gakushuu turns them over and presses his lips to Karma's lips and Karma stops thinking for a bit after that.

The resolve to assassinate Koro-sensei renews the class’ enthusiasm in their training, and even Karma feels the blood thrum in his veins, the newfound motivation as 3-E work hard towards their deadline But life always finds a way to fuck things up, doesn't it?  The government fires their secret satellite weapon - the Spear of Heaven - and traps Koro-sensei inside an antimatter dome dubbed the shield of Earth. Karma’s heart skips a beat when he stares up at the 3-E classroom atop the hill on Kunugigaoka Middle School, the red dome that surrounds it. 

3-E go to it - of course they go to it, where would they go? 3-E begs to see Koro-sensei one more time and they all get detained by the chief of operations in the military base that has set up camp on the foot of the hill. It’s Karasuma-sensei’s boss, and Karasuma-sensei and Bitch-sensei are quiet and helpless under the gaze of the Chief. He says that 3-E - now a "target", would be safe in "security" confinement, and the media eats it all up, of course they do. And it's not like a bunch of middle school children would go against the government.

Or so the military thought.

“That was a code,” Nagisa insists, “Karasuma-sensei doesn’t really want us gone. He trusts us to make our decisions.”

Gakushuu appears next to him, and nods.

“So be it,” Karma says. He looks at Gakushuu. “Can you get us out?”

“Of course, who am I, an amateur?” Gakushuu sniffs. “I wouldn’t recommend it, though, if you escape now, they’ll think you’re up to something and hunt you back down. Whatever you need to prepare, do it here, I can get you what you need.”

“Are you speaking with your demon?” Isogai says. “Um, hello.” 

Gakushuu places a hand on his shoulder. Isogai jumps, but then grins shakily and waves to thin air.

“Remember our plan? We’re not going to let some people take what we’ve been working for just like that,” Nagisa says, “we’ll infiltrate and go up the hill to see Koro-sensei and assassinate him ourselves if we have to.”

“I can get us whatever we need,” Karma says, crossing his arms. “Well, not me, but… you get it.”

Gakushuu casts a spell and the floor briefly glows red. 3-E glance down. “What happened?”

“I cast a silencing spell,” Gakushuu says, “whatever you say here, stays here.”

“Oh, cool,” Karma says. “He cast a silencing spell.”

“So we can yell as loud as we want?” Terasaka looks gleeful at the idea.

“We could, but we shouldn’t,” Hazama elbows him.

“Can we get some food too? I’m starving,” Yoshida says.

Gakushuu rolls his eyes. 

“The demon says yes,” Karma says.

“Hey!” Gakushuu says.

“Thank you, Karma’s demon,” 3-E choruses.

“Actually,” Kataoka pipes up, “can we get a name to address you by? It’s weird and disrespectful if we keep calling you Karma’s demon, um, no offense Karma.” At that, Gakushuu actually smiles, and he tilts his head when Karma looks at him for input, so Karma says, “just call him A.”

“A,” Isogai says, “okay, thank you A. I don’t know why we took such a long time to come up with a name for you.” He sounds a little embarrassed about it.

The military gave them sleeping bags, and the class is used to it, but they feel just a little bit plusher than army grade sleeping bags should be. The temperature in their room is just perfect, which is hilarious because the soldiers passing by are sweating as the sun bakes them. 

“At least they let us keep our phones to talk to our family,” Isogai sighs. “Oh, I got a text from Asano…?” He looks at Karma for assistance.

“Um,” Karma says. He looks at Gakushuu, who shrugs, then checks his phone to see what should be customary “are you okay” messages from a boyfriend. How cute and… extra. “So did I,” Karma says, “it’s okay, I’ll text him.”

Karma texts, “???”

He watches Gakushuu pull out his phone and tap something back. “Can’t I show concern like a regular boyfriend?”

Karma stares at him, deadpan. He shows Nagisa the messages, and he collapses laughing. Gakushuu leans over to smack Nagisa, who just laughs harder.

“What’s so funny?” Nakamura says. “Did loverboy send you a message?”

“He said, I can’t believe you kept this from me,” Karma pretends to read, “you have a giant yellow octopus as a teacher, what the fuck is the Reaper incident because I don’t believe it’s halloween.”

“What will you tell him?” Kayano asks, interested.

“I’ll tell him it’s a long story and watch my phone vibrate in his anger,” Karma says. He proceeds to do just that, and sets his phone on the floor and watches it ring. Twice. Thrice.

“Ohhh, I wanna,” Nakamura says, and snatches the phone. “Hi!”

“KARMA AKABANE-”

“It’s me, Asano! Nakamura! Karma’s not here right now, he’s avoiding your wrath,” Nakamura chirps. 3-E leans in closer to listen as she puts him on speaker. It’s funny, because Gakushuu has his phone to his ear and his head on Karma’s lap, and his eyes twinkle with mischief. But he does have a rather nice chat with 3-E, asking the right sort of curious questions that Karma’s classmates doesn’t answer and eventually wishing them the best in their confinement.

“Don’t worry,” Nakamura says, “Karma has us all covered.”

“Does he now,” Gakushuu says. Karma and Nagisa snigger. 

But eventually day one melts away, and then days two and three and four go by in a flurry of assassination plans and strategic discussions. On the last day, Bitch-sensei comes to see them. She exchanges a look with Gakushuu, waves at the class, and wanders off. Gakushuu snaps his fingers and everyone looks down to see themselves outfitted in their tactical uniforms.

“Thanks, A,” 3-E says.  Gakushuu steps out, looks left and right in the hallways, and then breaks the lock on their door.

An alarm instantly sounds. 3-E splits up into teams and have various run ins with the mercenaries assigned to subdue them, but their training comes in very handy. Gakushuu floating by lets Karma know that Karasuma-sensei had done a brilliant job in downplaying 3-E’s skills, so the mercenaries were underprepared. Thanks, Karasuma-sensei.

“90 minutes on the clock,” Ritsu tells them, but they’re already here.

“Kids!” Koro-sensei says. He sweeps all of them up in a massive tentacle hug. “You all came! And broke the law!”

“Of course we had to see you! You can’t die without us!” Maehara says.

“We’re supposed to do the killing, not some crummy government!” Kimura says. “I can’t believe they gave us a deadline and then didn’t let us work towards it!”

“Yeah,” Kurahashi says, “we-”

“Hey, guys!” Bitch-sensei cheers from behind. She runs up to them, Karasuma-sensei in tow. “Hope we didn’t miss anything!”

“You’ve successfully taken down Wolfpack’s team,” Karasuma-sensei says, “I suppose congratulations are in order.”

“We should have a cake,” Kayano claps her hands, “is it too much to ask for a cake, A?”

“A?” Koro-sensei says.

“That’s the name we’re calling Karma’s demon by,” Okuda says. 

Gakushuu rolls his eyes, and a cake appears anyways. It’s large, round, yellow, and has Koro-sensei’s face on it. It’s also floating in mid-air, but technicalities. The class wows at a floating cake, and cut into it then agree it’s delicious-

-and watches as itfalls to the ground. There are yells of surprise and people jump back to avoid getting splattered in icing, and Karma turns around to ask Gakushuu if he’s okay, but Gakushuu’s not looking at him. He’s staring straight at the darkened forest, his eyes are wide, and the bond twists horribly in Karma’s stomach.

He’s  _ terrified. _

“What-”

“Oh shit,” Bitch-sensei curses.

From the silhouetted trees emerge Shiro, no longer donned in signature white, staring at the class without his mask. Next to him was a creature so horrid and grotesque that Karma’s stomach started twisting in disgust, waving tentacles that were telltale of the nature of the creature - like all tentacles thus far, antimatter enhanced.

“That’s Reaper,” Gakushuu says coldly. 

“What?!” Karma hisses, eyes widening. 

Next to Shiro and Reaper, there were two unfamiliar people. A man and a woman, the man with ashy blond hair and the woman with dark brown, and Karma doesn’t know who they are but he already knows that they are not on their side, because their eyes are glowing faintly red and they have wings fanning from their backs.

“Gakushuu,” Karma gasps, fingers curling into his forearm.

“I forgot,” Gakushuu says quietly. “Takaoka was taken care of, but I forgot. Reaper knew about demons, he summoned one." A slow, twisted grin spreads across his face. "Three, now, I suppose." 

The two demons look over, and even though it's too far to be certain, Karma swears they are staring straight at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have ridiculous projects in the works. You don't want to hear about them.  
No, yes, you do. I've ruined my own life by making myself like the rarepair Karahou (that's Karasuma/Gakuhou for normal people) and I'm considering making more content on them (AHHH) why am I doing this to myself? I've also entertained the idea and is currently very entertained by Kayano/Gakushuu so we'll see that in the works pretty soon. That, and I have plenty of Gakushuu-angst ;) [Karushuu Week](https://gwendeeagain.tumblr.com/post/188891830199/karushuu-week-2019) is happening at the end of this month, honestly just die in assclass ridiculous rarepair hell with me. 
> 
> Anyways, here's our regularly scheduled "what's Gwen reading today?"   
[A Match Made in Hell by Mrytle](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21479839) is a fem Karma x Gakushuu fic, it's also a new fic starting out but it looks like it's going to be real fun. Support your local karushuu fic writers I'm lonely (sobs)  
[Snuggles by EternalFalsity](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12078885) is also a very cute established-relationship Karushuu drabble. Have you read it? You should. It's just 1k words of fluff please click the link now thanks  
Now, this, my friends, is what I call a rarepair. [Subjective by ionica01](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11550336) has written this brilliant Nakamura/Gakushuu oneshot and more, do check out the rest of her fics AND this one.   
[Please Choose Me by voidshadowwriter](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14708261) is another Nakamura/Gakushuu fic! It's incomplete sadly but I still love it!
> 
> Honestly, I just like shipping Shuu with anyone. I love him to an unhealthy degree, I can feel you all judging me, leave me alone!!


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't decide if I like this chapter or not, and I don't think I can come to a conclusion so I'll post it anyways.

"Gakushuu," Karma whispers.

Gakushuu doesn't turn back to look at him. "Call my dad."

"Gakushuu," Karma whispers again, tugging at his arm. "Hide.  _ Hide. _ "

"They already know," he says. He shrugs off Karma's hand. "Call my dad."

Karma looks up. The two demons stare back at him, and smile.

"How do I call him?" Karma says. 

Gakushuu doesn't answer. He pushes Karma behind him. 

Karma feels a hand on his shoulder. It's Bitch-sensei. "Karma," she says urgently.

"Bitch-sensei," Karma says, "Irina, Irina."

"You need to draw a circle," she says. The demons look at her. " _ Karma _ ."

"There's no time, I can't," Karma hisses back. Gakushuu is terrified, Karma feels it, he's not going to make it. His one small fluffy wing is out, nothing compared to the twin swords from their backs, they're looking at Gakushuu like he's prey because  _ he is _ -

"Give me your phone, your phone," Karma says, "Irina-"

"I don't have it," Irina hisses back, pushing Karma behind her too, sparks jumping up her arms, "The octopus does, go." 

Karma doesn't turn his back, he stumbles backwards until he's in the middle of his class, they're crowding around him with worried looks at staring over where Irina is seemingly facing nothing, what's wrong Karma? It’s not just Shiro, is it? Who’s that next to him?

"Koro-sensei I need your phone," Karma says frantically, one of the demons is staring at him now, still grinning. "Give me your phone, Koro-sensei, Koro-sensei-"

"Why?" Koro-sensei says skeptically, but he reaches a tentacle into his pocket.

"I need to call someone," Karma says, "Asano- the principal, you have his number, you have his number, right? I need to call him right now."

"The principal? Why do you need to call him?" Koro-sensei says loudly, oh shit fuck the two demons are staring at him now, Irina glances back in terror, Gakushuu doesn't but his wing arches-

"GIVE ME THE FUCKING PHONE!" Karma screams.

The two demons burst forth. Karma grabs the phone and bolts into the forest, as the screams of his classmates echo and someone yells "Bitch-sensei!" And Karma opens the contact list as he's running for his life and thank fucking god Koro-sensei organized his contacts alphabetically-

He screams as the tree next to him catches on fire, and then the next and the next, hears the receiver on the other end click as someone answers, "ASANO-"

-and then the wind is knocked out of him and for the briefest moments Karma thinks this is it,

until he finds himself on his hands and knees and back in the middle of the classroom, the 3-E building is in flames and his classmates are still screaming, Irina is on her knees and sobbing. 

Fire bursts in the sky. 

Karma scrambles to his feet, rushes over to where Gakushuu is lying on a heap on the ground, and falls next to him. He’s not moving, he’s not moving. “Irina,” Karma gasps, “Irina, Irina!”

“Who’s that?” Someone calls. “Is that another demon?”

Shit, they can see him?

“Karma, is that your demon?”

“Don’t come any closer!” Karma yells. Gakushuu must be too weak and unconscious to keep his invisibility. They can’t see him, no, no, Karma pulls his hand back and it’s dripping with blood. “Irina!” He says again, “Irina!”

“I c-can’t,” she chokes out, “Karma,” but she crawls over to him, presses a palm to the side of Gakushuu’s head, and closes her eyes.

Nothing happens. She opens them again, and they’re red. Her fingers are broken. 

“Irina,” Karma says. “They can see him.”

She doesn’t reply. There’s nothing she can do about it. 

There’s another explosion in the sky, and then several, and Reaper - oh shit, Reaper, Karma forgot all about him, rushes forth and starts attacking Koro-sensei. There are two battles going on in the air, two of them the class can’t follow or see, Karma grips Gakushuu’s unconscious body closer to him and cradles his head against his chest. His shirt is soaking through. 

“Tadaomi,” Irina sobs. 

Karma’s head snaps up. Karasuma-sensei is there, eyes widening as he takes in the boy in Karma’s arms. “Akabane,” he says.

Karma doesn’t say a word. He nods.

He watches as the dots connect in Karasuma-sensei’s brain. “You called the principal,” he says in realization, “is he?” And tilts his head to the sky.

“Yeah,” Karma says shakily. He presses his lips to Gakushuu's hair. "Please wake up, please wake up."

Shiro injects himself with the tentacles and then jumps into the fray, and Karma watches in horror as Koro-sensei becomes overwhelmed with the two assailants coming at him. He has to defeat them, he has to, he has to-

-Gakushuu’s eyes snap open.

“Oh my god,” Karma says, readjusting his grip and presses a clammy hand to Gakushuu’s cheek and almost kisses him, “A-ah, you’re okay, your dad is here.”

“Who the hell are they?” Gakushuu says, gripping onto Karma’s shirt. His eyes follow the movement of the Mach-20 tentacle battle in the air but Karma doesn’t see anything, they’re too fast for him to follow. He starts looking over Gakushuu for injuries, his wing is ripped up but it still seems salvageable, Karma would never forgive himself if Gakushuu is grounded forever.

“Shiro and Reaper,” Karma says. “Koro-sensei’ll handle it, he’ll-”

And in a split second Karma’s pushed roughly on his back onto the ground. He quickly jumps up. He hadn’t noticed Kayano, that she’s entered the fight - he almost wishes he could have seen her, it would have been magnificent, except she’s only human, she never would have won and Karma has his mouth open in a soundless cry as the rest of their class screams as Reaper gets too close.  But she’s no longer in the heat of the battle, snatched out of the air by a shroud of black. She’s down on the ground, eyes wide and panting, and slowly setting her down is Gakushuu, eyes burning in the dark. 

“What the,” Kayano breathes.

The class is silent in shock, staring unabashedly. Even Reaper and Koro-sensei and Shiro are watching, bewildered by this newcomer who evaded the speed of Mach 20 tentacles by a hair to save the girl. 

Very slowly, Gakushuu stands to his full height. He wavers on his feet and there’s blood flowing from his forehead to his neck, down all around his arms, off his one wet wing that’s impossibly torn, feathers fluttering lightly in the breeze. Karma doesn’t think he’d seen anything more beautiful in his life.

“I lost one of my wings because of your demon,” Gakushuu says coolly, “are you going to pay me back?” Reaper cocks his head in acknowledgement, he knows what Gakushuu is talking about, and so does 3-E, who all come to the realization at the same time and look at Karma for answers, but Karma doesn’t have any.

But…

...Karma feels it, in his bones, the unsteadiness in Gakushuu’s. He feels it, and it hurts in every fiber of his being.

“Gakushuu,” Karma manages, “please.” He doesn’t want to say that Gakushuu wouldn’t win this fight but he’s in no condition to, he knows that he knows. 

Gakushuu steps back, and then again, and Karma’s there to catch him as he stumbles and crashes over, and then Reaper and Shiro and Koro-sensei are fighting in Mach-20 again.

Karma turns to his classmates. They're looking between him and Gakushuu in a mix of confusion, horror and betrayal, Karma holds Gakushuu closer to him. "This is," Karma says, not how he wanted this conversation to go, "he is, okay, no, introductions first. Gakushuu, 3-E, 3-E, this is the student council president, my boyfriend and a demon, Gakushuu Asano." 

Gakushuu ruffles his wing, and raises his face from Karma's neck to look at 3-E, who stare back. "Look at yourself," Bitch-sensei coos, taking a handkerchief and wiping the blood away from Gakushuu's face, "you're the first demon ambassador 3-E has met and you can't even keep your face clean." 

"The first they met was Ivanoff," Gakushuu says. He looks at 3-E. "That's Reaper's demon."

"He tore off… your… wing," Sugino stammers.

Gakushuu lifts his existing one and shakes the blood and grime off it. "Yeah," he says bitterly, and then a loud crackle explodes in the air, Gakushuu leaps to his feet-

-and gets swiped up by the neck until he's struggling and choking, grasping at the hand that has him suspended in mid-air. The demoness, two large sweeping wings from her back, lands hard in front of 3-E and holds Gakushuu out at arm's length, her nails digging into his skin. She cocks her head and stares at them with disdain, teeth bared, and then glares at Karma. “You must be the human.”

“L-let him go," Karma begs, Gakushuu struggles in her grip, "let him go, please."

“Don’t look at me like that,” she says, “I won’t kill my cute little nephew. Maim, maybe.” She looks Gakushuu over, her face twists in abhor and did she just call Gakushuu her nephew?

“What happened to your wing?” The woman snaps, and shakes Gakushuu like a rag doll. He gags and struggles harder, and chokes out "I-Ivanoff!"

“You held your own against Ivanoff?” She says, raising her eyebrow. "I was hoping you'd missed the meeting because Gakuhou got bored of playing house and finally slaughtered you but this… is an interesting development." She lets go and Gakushuu crashes at her feet, but he immediately gets back up. 3-E are silent, watching the newcomer, the demon who is… Gakushuu's aunt? They look… similar, Karma supposes, with equally sharp jawlines and angled eyes...

The Principal lands, and the class screams. There goes the secret, Karma guesses, or at least the rest of it. He’s in a nicely-pressed suit and it’s stained with blood, as if he didn’t look menacing enough before. “Aina,” he greets. 

“Gakuhou,” she wrinkles her nose. "You're growing less efficient by the minute."

The Principal winces. “Which one?”

“Yanagisawa,” she says, peering at her nails. They’re ruby red.

“I’ll kill him for you,” the Principal says.

Aina looks bored. “Do it quick.”

In the next blink, there’s slightly more blood on the Principal’s suit, and Shiro is… well, he’s no longer in the air. It doesn’t take a genius to guess what happened to him. 

“What a waste of such a delectably twisted soul,” Aina sighs. “I suppose this was… marginally entertaining.”

Another person appears next to them - the man, a wound on his head and a shaky scowl on his face. "You didn't have to hit me that hard, Gakuhou," he whines, rubbing his head. "I wasn't going to kill Shuu-ey! Hurt him a lot, maybe, but- hey man, what happened to your wing? Shit, did I do that?" 

"No," Aina interrupts, "Ivanoff did." Her eyes glitter.

The man's eyes widen. "You're kidding."

"No," Aina says, a smirk playing on her lips. The man cocks his head and also starts grinning. They look back up to see the final dredges of Koro-sensei's fight with Reaper, as Koro-sensei ends his life by pushing him into the Earth's Shield. He lands in front of the class quickly and stares wordlessly at the Principal and Gakushuu, a defensive and wary stance in front of 3-E.

"Gakushuu's a demon," Karma says quickly. He jumps up and pushes Koro-sensei back in case any of the demons decided to use him for target practice, "and, uh, so is the Principal. And this wonderful lady and gentleman over there. Gakushuu has been the one... helping us all this while since the start of the school year." His eyes flick to his classmates. "He said I summoned him in a janitor's closet, that's what happened. I'm stupid, you can yell at me later, we're alive because of him." 

"Is that true?" Koro-sensei says. "How… unexpected." He reaches a tentacle out and places it on Gakushuu's head, and Gakushuu's eyes widen. "Is that true, young Asano?" 

"I," Gakushuu says. His wing flutters nervously. At that Koro-sensei directs a tentacle to pluck off a scarcely hanging feather, and he examines it for a bit. 

"Hmm," he says, "Karma said you lost your wing in a fight against Reaper’s demon. I think I might be able to…" Koro-sensei opens his mouth and eats the feather. Everyone's jaw drops, Gakushuu makes a disgusted noise, and even the three demons blanch. Koro-sensei makes a ridiculous show of chewing and swallowing for no goddamn reason, what the fuck?

"This might hurt a bit, little Asano," he says, and then his tentacles wrap around Gakushuu and pierce into his back. Gakushuu screams and collapse on all fours. Karma reaches to grab at him but Koro-sensei keeps him out of arm’s reach with his tentacles. "Koro-sensei!"

Gakushuu screams louder. Koro-sensei's tentacles seem to be pulsating, twisting into his back, and a light glows brighter, brighter-

-Two large new wings burst out from between Gakushuu's shoulder blades with a nasty sounding squelch. They're dripping wet and pressed flat with blood. His one remaining wing tears off and crumples uselessly to the floor.

"That's impossible!" The Principal yells. "How did you-"

"Antimatter!" Koro-sensei says cheerfully. Gakushuu's on his hands and knees, coughing out little bits of his lungs. "Irina and I have been doing some research and we found out that antimatter can replicate the effects of magic rather quickly and my stem cells are actually still human stem cells, just full of antimatter. I know Gaksuhuu isn't technically human but I thought that coupled with the magical properties of antimatter, it could-" 

"I'm half human!" Gakushuu yells. He staggers to his feet but then rather comically trips over a wing and crashes into the Principal. 

Koro-sensei pauses. "Well that's extra lucky then." 

"They're disgusting," the Principal says, and he grabs his son. With a wave of his hands the wings are dry and gut-free, and extremely fluffy. Karma's a little glad they're not knives. The two demons immediately grab at Gakushuu's wings, on the right the man pulls out an unnecessarily large clump of feathers, and under Aina's fingers come a sickening crack, and she pulls out a slip of bone. The Principal scowls at the duo and wraps both his arms around Gakushuu. Karma wants to cry.

"Hm," Aina says, and snaps the bone between her teeth. "Magnificently inauthentic demon bone." 

"Subpar flight feathers, more down, really," the man says, and pauses, "that's what Shuu-ey's wings were always like so I'll give the benefit of doubt."

"Hm," Aina says. "Interesting."

"Glad to be of service," Koro-sensei says. Karma doesn’t know what to say, his mind is swirling with so many emotions that aren’t entirely his, and he’s bursting with feelings but they’re all stuck in his throat. The Principal lets out a yelp, Gakushuu breaks free from his death grip and runs straight into Koro-sensei, grabbing him in a hug. 

“I h-hate you!” Gakushuu wails. He’s sobbing, which Karma thinks is attributed largely by his own emotions translating through the bond, but the rush of endorphins as Gakushuu starts crying makes him start sobbing too. Koro-sensei looks surprised but wraps his tentacles around Gakushuu and pats him awkwardly. Karma rubs his eyes with the back of his hand.  Then Gakushuu jolts upwards and jumps back like he’s finally remembered he has an audience, straightening up and glancing back at the three demons with a sheepish look. The Principal is gaping in what seems to be wordless anger and - dare Karma say - jealousy, Aina looks unperturbed, and the man is laughing.

"Well,” Koro-sensei says, “I'm exhausted." He falls backwards into a heap and lets out a large sigh. The class yells and gathers around him, and Koro-sensei waves his tentacles weakly. "It's time to die, I guess, kill me before the weapon does."

"No, Koro-sensei!-" 

"-How would you like to live for a few more centuries instead?" 

Everyone whips around. Demoness Aina raises a red nail and taps her cheek. "Hm? Koro? Your skills, the manipulation of antimatter. That is useful and I don't see why you should die so soon."

Koro-sensei looks at her warily. "What are you suggesting?"

"An offer you can't refuse," Aina grins, all sharp teeth. "I'll turn you into a demon. All your human troubles, and octopus troubles too I would assume," she waves a hand, "gone, just like that. Of course, you'll be under my servitude for your life, expectedly." An equal exchange.

There's a silence as everyone holds bated breaths. The two other demons are silent but exchanging befuddled looks, and Karma thinks he sees the hierarchy of power here. How odd to think that the Principal is not the top dog but his… sister, is? Koro-sensei flicks his gaze towards Gakushuu, who looks the worse for wear and has his wings wrapped around him. Aina follows his line of sight, rolls her eyes and says, "you be different from the brat, if that's your worry. A turned demon is a full one, and even then, you're useful."

"Aww, don't worry, Shuu-ey," the man says, and he reaches forward to ruffle Gakushuu's hair. "You're still our favorite little demonling." He pauses, “well, mine anyways. And your father’s, but he’ll never admit that.”

"Ikeda," Gakushuu whines. 

The man, or Ikeda, laughs. "Aww, I'm so proud! Ivanoff! I never liked him anyways."

"Koro-sensei?" Nagisa says warily.

"Yes," Koro-sensei says, "sure, why not?" 

3-E scatters. Aina raises her nails - talons - and slashes Koro-sensei across the face, sending yellow goo spurting everywhere. 3-E screams. She grimaces at it but licks the goo off her fingers, and then starts chanting an incantation. Koro-sensei’s form glows red, then rises a little and flares blindingly. Karma covers his eyes with his arm but he sees just before that Gakushuu staring straight at it - he’d have to ask what happened later - and then it stops just as suddenly, plunging the rest of the night in darkness.

Then a man sits up and gasps, body still glowing red, draped in Koro-sensei's oversized teacher's gown and peeling yellow off his body.

"Good," Aina says in approval. "I was hoping you wouldn't keep your ridiculous octopus form." She turns to the Principal. "Now it seems like we both have our little experimental pet projects."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god. We're finally near the end and I can never see this fic again.  
I'm joking. I do have short stories I think I've been teasing everyone with that I plan to post on a separate fic (because they didn't fit in with the main storyline) and even though, as I've complained numerous times, I'm on the fence with whether I'm satisfied with the character development of this fic, I'm already invested in them and I love this stupid little universe. Do let me know if you have anything floating around related to this universe you want me to take a crack at for my unrelated-vignettes series or, heck, adapt something yourself! HAHA give me a heads up but I'll love it. 
> 
> By the way, my recommendations are sad/melancholy today but they're all wonderfully written.   
[no color more beautiful than you by tanktrilby](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4255518) is an absolutely beautiful Karushuu fic that made me cry and ya'll know nothing ever does.   
[Two Hours by ElvaDeath](archiveofourown.org/works/21673318) is a Gakuren fic that's also wonderful. I love fics that mess with the nuances of time.   
[Everybody Gets High by brosmoe](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20836907) is awesome and fucks with Gakushuu's head. I sense a theme here.


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: Just wanted to leave a note here. I'm still deliberating over this chapter and the last and there Might still be changes upcoming, especially surrounding Koro-sensei's fate. I'm leaning towards ending his life right about now but I'm still... thinking about it, I suppose, on how to resolve... everything. I'll update soon (I hope) on which ending I'll stick with.
> 
> Edit (as of 3/6/2020): I've finally reconciled my emotions with this fic... there's a lot. I did so by publishing the fourth fic in this series, although I have to warn you it's an AU of this AU. It's technically a Korosensei dies sequel, but it's not, well, the way you'd expect. Heed the warnings for that fic please! It's completely different from how I originally anticipated to conclude this series, but Im oddly okay with that... and today this will finally be marked as Complete.

All the full demons (including recent ones) all disappear very soon after that, leaving the class with more questions than answers. Gakushuu answers them, all the while looking highly uncomfortable, but 3-E waits patiently. 

“Koro-sensei’s alive,” he says. “And it seems like he’ll be for a few centuries or so. He’s a turned demon now but he’ll take a while to get used to his new form, I’m sure Aina took him to get indoctrinated so he doesn’t get killed.” He flicks his wing - soft, new - and nerves tingle in Karma’s stomach. “I’m sure you are all concerned about his treatment with regards to any experimentation since he’d been a test subject under Shiro’s lab for a while, but antimatter is a useful tool and his mastery is unique, so I fathom he’d be more of a research partner than a lab rat.” His hands reach up to touch his neck absently. “He’d be safe from other demons, if that’s your worry, because killing him now would offend Aina, and nobody wants to offend her.”

Karma already agrees. Oddly enough, they’re seated in their assigned seats in the 3-E classroom, still in their tactical uniforms. Yada, rather comically, raises her hand. Gakushuu stares at her but Karma feels the amusement radiating from him, and he nods to prompt her. “Will we be able to speak to him?”

“I can ask,” Gakushuu says. It’s kind of funny and sad because Karma knows Gakushuu has no say in the matter.

Fuwa’s hand shoots up too. “You said you’re a half-human, right? So your dad - ah, the principal - is a full demon, and your mother is a human? Was that woman really your aunt? Who was the other guy?” The class shoots her a look, and her hand sheepishly lowers. “Sorry, I was just curious.”

Gakushuu smiles a little and it doesn’t go unnoticed. “Yes, I am a half-demon from my father’s side, and half-human from my mothers. Aina is indeed my aunt, who is half a century older than my father, who is in turn a full century older than we are. I am exactly your age. The other guy as you called him is another demon on the demon council by which our society is run upon, as was Reaper’s demon. There is no hell or heaven and you will not go there when you die, there are many dimensions overlapping with this and ours simply exist as one. Angels are our counterparts in a differing political faction, I will not explain the politics.”

Fuwa blinks, confused, and Karma watches the class deliberate those words with visible confusion. In the front row, Isogai raises his hand. “I have a question. Are you all right?”

Gakushuu blinks. It’s unexpected. “Well, yes,” he says, brows furrowed. 

“Really?” Isogai leans forward. “Asano, I don’t know how to thank you, you’ve done so much for us and we didn’t even know it. You almost died!”

Gakushuu’s wings flutter. “Well I couldn’t have let  _ you all _ die,” he mutters, and Karma feels it before he sees it but Gakushuu blushes a little. In the front row, Karma’s classmates gasp. Yeah, he has a cute boyfriend.

“Did you like the card?” Sugaya pipes up.

Gakushuu flushes redder. “It was very nice,” he murmurs. The class starts chattering loudly, including saying their thanks and asking Gakushuu rapid-fire questions on his actions and opinions at certain turning points of the year. Gakushuu clears his throat loudly and says, “it’s very late, graduation is tomorrow. You should get some rest, take some showers and change.”

“The showers here are all cold,” Yoshida complains, “and we don’t even have our toiletries.” Then in sync, everyone slowly turns to Gakushuu with half-sheepish, half-expectant looks. Karma starts laughing, Gakushuu rolls his eyes and says “sure, whatever,” and the class lets out cheers.

It’s 1am when the last person - well, human - in the room falls asleep, except for Karma. The classroom should be freezing in the middle of the night, by all accounts, but the building is kept at a nice temperature and the puffy sleeping bags are all the insulation they need. Karma unzips his because he has to make more space, and because he already has a personal heater. Said personal heater flops down next to him.

Hi, Karma mouths. Gakushuu’s wings envelope both of them, Karma misses the feeling. He runs his fingers through the feathers and Gakushuu sighs against his shoulder, and Karma doesn’t want to wake anyone so they don’t do much talking. He must be exhausted because he falls asleep quickly after, and when he wakes in the morning it’s to a dim, half-empty classroom.

It should be bright out, but Karma quickly figures out why. Gakushuu is floating in mid-air, legs crossed, quietly talking to Irina and Karasuma-sensei. He looks up as Karma stretches, eyes flicking briefly to the patch of skin that shows as his shirt rises, and then looks back quickly. Irina giggles.

Karma smiles at him. He goes to freshen up in the toilets - still blessed with running hot water - before more people wake, and then joins the others who have already risen. Everyone is dressed in generic monotone pyjamas made of demon magic and Kurahashi asks if she can keep hers because they’re just too soft to give up. 

“Uh, sure?” Karma says. “I mean, I doubt he’ll want to have those back.” There’s a mountain of sandwiches because that’s what generic breakfasts are and also Gakushuu’s not the cook between both of them. They have the convenience stall logo on and Karma imagines Gakushuu buying out an entire stock of packaged sandwiches and running out with armfuls of bread. They’re nice, though. He’s nice.

The rest of the class are up by 8.30am, or rather Gakushuu kicks them out by 8.30am because graduation starts at 9. He snaps his fingers and then everyone is in nicely pressed and fitted school uniforms. Karma scowls at his tie and fiddles to loosen it, and Gakushuu smacks him on the head. They all head down to Main to see the last dredges of the military camp being torn down as well as early news crew milling around the area, no doubt ready to capture whatever post Koro-sensei footage they can find. Gakushuu rolls his eyes and waves a hand, and later he lets Karma know he cast a spell to make them lose their focus momentarily so that 3-E could walk past unhassled. Inside the hall the other students stare and whisper, and Gakushuu's no longer next to 3-E but on the other side of the room with his classmates. Next to Karma, Maehara nudges him conspiratorially.

The parents take their seats, the press are barricaded behind rope, and the ceremony begins without a hitch. Gakushuu is the first one up on stage. He shakes the Principal's hand, accepts his graduation certificate and then does a signature twist of his fingers that Karma recognizes as a spell-casting move. And then of all things, a man falls from the ceiling.

3-E jump in surprise and a few gasp, but Karma notes the listless and slightly confused reaction from the rest of the cohort and quickly whispers "don't react, no one else can see it, it's a demon thing." The message is quickly passed and Okuda says "Wow, you must have had a lot of practice, huh!" That doesn’t even begin to cover it.

A familiar laugh echoes in the room, and the man gets up to dust off his clothes - despite the supposed non-reaction they’re supposed to have a ripple of excitement goes through 3-E. The man is wearing Koro-sensei's signature robes and his tie, and he starts jumping on stage and waving frantically in 3-E's direction. "It's me, Koro-sensei!" He cheers, "I was allowed to come visit you! I'm invisible and no one can see me, and I'm a demon- oomph!" He falls flat on his face.

The next few students are already up, and they unknowingly walk past a flattened Koro-sensei, who has been stuck to the floor with his mouth glued shut, courtesy of no doubt the Principal. Karma snickers. 

Eventually it's 3-E's turn. Karma is the first one up in alphabetical order, and he tries to keep a straight face but when he passes Koro-sensei, crossed legged and staring at him with pride shining in his eyes, Karma feels just that tiny little bit more choked up. He reaches the Principal who looks at him with a knowing glance and shakes his hand. Karma watches his classmates come up after him, they pass Koro-sensei and then look slightly more emotional. The Principal must feel lenient because Koro-sensei is allowed to stretch his legs and wave. Karma grips onto his transcript and grins at him. They have a surprisingly human exit even if it's rather over the top, with the 3-A students flanking them and the Kunugigaoka flag over their heads to ruin the exposure levels of all the pictures that the media try to take. Gakushuu rolls his eyes like it's too much trouble for his efforts but he smiles with a little twinkle in his eye as 3-E boards the bus to the government facility where they are to be interrogated, and Karma sees Gakushuu flitting around the rooms to keep their stories straight. He has a little whiteboard and everything, and he draws a little octopus smiley in Koro-sensei’s likeness.. 

Afterwards the class is ushered to a waiting area where a government agent tells them they'll be released shortly. They sit for a few moments until Gakushuu appears in front of them.

He's not alone. "Koro-sensei?" 

"Hello students!" The human version of Koro-sensei is odd looking - Karma’s way too used to a giant yellow octopus - but he has the same grin and voice and laugh, and he exudes an unmistakable exuberant energy. That, and he's still wearing Koro-sensei's regular robes. "Mistress says I'm allowed to come visit you for graduation, and then some, as long as Gakushuu watches over me." 

"Mistress?" Nakamura says.

Koro-sensei shrugs. "I'm not allowed to say her name or I get hexed and thrown into The Pit for disrespect. I'm pretty sure there's about 5 people in total who are allowed to mention and address her by name."

Including Gakushuu? How surprising given that he is supposed to be low on the hierarchy, but Karma's glad. Maybe Aina - ah, Mistress, Karma’s not taking any chances especially with his affiliation to the demons - does like him after all.

"How's being a demon?" Fuwa asks. 

"Weird. I have thumbs again," Koro-sensei beams, holding up both hands. "The demon dimension is really cool, it's honestly a lot like Earth except much warmer and a lot of infrastructure is built around being able to fly- oh! Check these out!" Wings extend from his back, jet black, and they span almost as wide as the small room they are in. Karma's pretty sure Koro-sensei's wings can wrap the entire class in.

"Woah," Sugino says, but Koro-sensei quickly folds them back.

"I don't recommend touching them, they sliced my fingers to ribbons." Koro-sensei pouts. "Asano's looks so fluffy, I want his."

"You don't," Gakushuu sighs.

"So what's going to happen now?" Isogai says. "Koro-sensei, you're going to live in the demon realm now?"

“It seems so,” Koro-sensei says. “I’ll visit often, I promise! Asano would take care of me.” 

Gakushuu snorts at that. Karma doesn't know if Koro-sensei knows he’s technically higher up on the demon social hierarchy than Gakushuu is, but is he more or less powerful? More, with the antimatter maybe?

“That’s cool,” Maehara says lamely, but then the class lapses into silence.

Koro-sensei blinks at them. “What’s wrong?”

“You can’t say ‘what’s wrong’,” Terasaka asks, making exaggerated finger quotes, but then he crosses his arms and refuses to elaborate. The class exchanges conflicted looks and Isogai speaks up.

“Everything is all so overwhelming,” he says, and he gets murmurs of agreement. “We never wanted you to die but we expected you to, and now with so many new things happening… it’d just take a while to process.”

Gakushuu frowns a little. “I have some things to do,” he says quietly, obviously feeling out of place, “I should leave you all to-”

“Wait,” Kataoka says, and grasps his wrist before he escapes. 

“You’re as much a part of the class as all of us are,” Kanzaki tells him.

“Even if we didn’t know it,” Yoshida adds.

“Besides,” Kayano says, and winks at him, “it’s not like you were the only one keeping secrets.”

Gakushuu doesn’t give a verbal answer, but he turns pink and he stays.

“It’d probably take a while for all of us to come to terms with what happened and that Koro-sensei's, um, demon transformation,” Isogai says, “but… I’m glad.” 

And, well, the rest of them are too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I don't really know how to end this but...
> 
> Well, this is it. It's been a nice few months! My first chapter was from... oh geez, August, it's been that long??? Well it has been THAT long, as it turns out, thank you for everyone who have stuck through it, my ramblings and my ridiculous-ness, my diverging plot and my self doubt. It's been great fun hanging out and chatting with all of you, my [tumblr](https://gwendeeagain.tumblr.com/) is always open for whatever. 
> 
> Sadly (or gladly) there's no fic reccs this time, but I did update several of my rare-pair fics I said were supposed to be oneshots, namely "Names, names" featuring Akari/Karma and "Firsts" featuring Gakuhou/his unnamed wife. 
> 
> I do have a few projects upcoming inclusive of the several vignettes in this universe, I suppose you shall find out soon, in any case. I'll see you all soon! I'll include this in a series so keep a look out for any related fics in the universe.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think! Insult my idea. Propose a new one. Write with me. Whatever.


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